Adjust
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary**: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.

Contains brief strong swearing. Tentacles.

Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a _lot_ more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.

Set post-season 4, and before season 5.

Written for tentaclebigbang Yeeeep. The link to the art post is in my profile!

Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! *hearts*

I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there _really is_ an unholy amount of crack in this fic.

Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD

* * *

**************Adjust**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

_Fuck_!

"Tao!"

Takeo gritted his teeth and continued shooting at the Union agent as the agent sped away, trusting M-21 to look after Tao, trusting Tao to be _all right_.

"M-21-"

"_Go_!"

Takeo nodded, not caring if M-21 saw it or not, and tore after the agent.

xOx

Tao was sprawled across the ground, feverish, and pale; he wasn't responding to anything M-21 said either. M-21 tried to find his pulse and his own briefly caught in his throat when he couldn't find it – he knew he wasn't thinking properly, but coming across Tao slumped over in the street, an agent standing in the shadows, his arm still outstretched… M-21 shook his head, focused, and finally found Tao's pulse.

He breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders sagging. M-21 pulled out his phone and texted Frankenstein, telling him what had happened; once it was sent, he scooped Tao up, intending to carry him where they wouldn't be seen so easily.

…Tao was heavier than the last time M-21 had had to carry him. A lot heavier. It wasn't even either, concentrated on-

Cloth ripped, practically a shout in the silent night after the retort of Takeo's gunfire, and M-21 stared, his eyes wide.

Shit.

xOx

Waking up to the regular beep of the heart monitor was never a good thing. Neither was waking up _really_ hungry, 'cause that usually meant Tao's body had eaten itself to heal heavy injuries. Except Tao couldn't remember what had happened – he'd left Takeo and M-21 after school to buy a computer part, but he could only remember starting to take the route to the shop. After that, he was suddenly gaining consciousness in bed.

So, check-time: he had a bit of a headache; one, two, three, four, five – yep, he could feel and move all his fingers; his torso ached, but he'd had worse; and his leee – uh. …Okay. That was different.

Tao opened his eyes to the familiar recovery room ceiling and he grinned at the exclamations he heard. Everyone was there, either standing or scattered around on chairs, except for the Boss, but Tao didn't feel too jilted. Boss was obviously busy, seeing what had happened.

"Ta-"

"How are-"

"Are you all-"

Tao threw off his blanket and peered at his legs. Or what used to be his legs. He should probably start calling them 'tentacles', because there was no other words he could use to describe them (except maybe 'ramen noodles' and yeah, no, at least 'tentacles' _sounded_ cool; who wanted to describe themselves having 'ramen noodles' for legs?). Tao lifted his top to see the tentacles started a little past his belly button and were the same colour as his skin, with little black bands thinner than his pinkie spread evenly around each limb, interrupted by a white one every so often.

"You painted me?" Tao asked, amused, two tentacles obediently curling up to his hands at a thought for closer inspection. They weren't (obviously, because no-one else had that sense of humour, but he'd mostly said that to get them to stop worrying for a second), the colours seamlessly going from one to the next, as if they were tattoos, or part of a design, like how a leopard had spots. The tentacles were about double the length of his original legs, and when Tao ran his hand over one limb, it didn't feel that different from when he had done that to his regular legs, both in terms of texture and the feedback he got from the tentacle. They were suckerless too, the underside a little rougher than the top, giving less at a squeeze.

"Tao!"

Good to know the distraction had worked as well as he thought it would though!

Takeo sighed, a wry smile on his face. "I guess we should be glad you're still the same."

"Of course I'm still the same!" Tao exclaimed, shoving himself up to lean back on the wall, a couple of his tentacles dropping over the edge of the bed. Tao didn't feel a wave of dizziness and he grinned; that was good. "All I have is a couple more limbs – they do seem kind of responsive though," Tao said as he made two tentacles twine around each other because he felt like it. It was like when he used his cables, except even easier. "Huh, I wonder if I can code or make gadgets with these…" It was an interesting thought. The tentacles were thicker than his wrist though, so they probably wouldn't be able to do anything too delicate, but coding… If he built a keyboard with bigger keys, oooh, that could be fun…

He heard M-21 shake his head. "Of course you aren't worried about anything."

"Nope." Tao grinned at him. "Boss is checking me out -and it's _Boss_, come on; he'll have a fix in a week, max- and think of all the stuff I can do with these!" he said gleefully, waving his tentacles.

"More jokes," Regis said, deadpan.

"That too." He had all these limbs - he may as well _use_ them. "But there _is_ something I'm worried about," Tao admitted, frowning as he tapped his cheek with a finger. The room was silent. "How am I going to pee?" Because his entire lower half had just rearranged itself; did he even _have_-

"Tao!" Regis shouted, outraged. "Seira's in the room!"

"Regis," Tao said gently, a grin growing on his face again, "I think Miss Seira's aware I pee." And he'd technically flashed her, whoops. Better hope no-one else realised that.

Regis made a grumbling noise anyway, missing Miss Seira's smile of amusement.

Boss entered the recovery room just then, still in his labcoat – he was also carrying a bowl of ramen on a tray, and really, the others thought Boss didn't have a sense of humour?

"Do I want to know what the other ingredients are?" Tao asked, lifting himself up some more –woah, cool, the tentacles could make him taller too- to try and peer inside the bowl.

"You could ask," Boss said, a small smile on his face, not trying to hide what was in it.

"Heh, so long as you haven't put squid in it, I'll eat anything. …I'd probably eat it even if you had, actually." His stomach roared at that point, and Tao chuckled. Things got a little weird though, when he tried to take the tray from Boss' hands. Tao reached out with his own arms, but two tentacles also rose to take it from Boss, a further two curling around Boss' wrists like they were trying to keep him immobile.

Which, apart from being a little embarrassing, was absolutely hilarious – Boss would be able to break their hold without even trying.

Boss raised an eyebrow, his smile still there, patient, at least.

"Hold on," Tao said, scrunching his eyebrows together as he tried to find which tentacles had decided to hold Boss, and now that he was concentrating on what the tentacles were telling him, he got a wealth of information flooding his mind, like the thickness of the bed leg, how soft the carpet was and-

"Tao, you've got my ankle," M-21 said, amusement clear in his voice.

"Good thing it was me who got hit, then," Tao said loftily, one side of his mouth quirking up as he continued to sort through all the information, "because if one of _you_ ended up being-" Oh, dammit, he'd grabbed Takeo's waist now; when had that one climbed the chair? "-a _hug_ monster, you'd die of shock." Or it would help them relax and Tao would count that as a good thing. Even if he was the one being grabbed.

…Huh. That was weird. Tao frowned, and the tentacles responded to that, stilling.

"Tao?" Boss said. "What's wrong?"

"My headache's gone." As in, it had just upped and left, taking all the other little annoyances too, so there.

Everything clicked into place with that, and Tao knew exactly which tentacles were where, and he tugged them away from Boss, Takeo, and M-21.

The headache came back. Smaller than before, but still, it came back. Tao blinked, his jaw dropping. "I really _am_ a hug monster?" He'd been joking when he'd said that!

"Explain," Regis said, frowning.

Tao tilted his head at Takeo and M-21, who nodded; he looped his tentacles around their ankles and yeah, the headache left again.

"I have…a biological urge to hug people," Tao said, scratching his cheek, loosening the tentacles' hold on them, but keeping light contact. "Or touch people, I guess; I had a headache that disappeared as soon as the tentacles touched Takeo and M-21." Would he feel better the more people he touched at the same time? That…was a question for another time. Because he was still hungry.

The same tentacles as last time rose up and took the tray from Boss' hands (without the extra two trying to hold Boss still), and they held the tray steadily as they brought it to Tao. Tao dug in, and he bit back a snicker when he realised some of his tentacles were twitching every so often in tandem with how he moved his chopsticks. The Boss' cooking tasting as amazing as ever so it was good to know his taste buds had stayed the same after what had happened.

Boss hummed, and Tao's chopsticks hovered in the air as he focused on Boss. _That_ didn't sound good.

Boss raised an eyebrow and Tao nodded, swallowing what was in his mouth and set his chopsticks down – there wasn't any point keeping it private if Tao would tell the others later anyway. "I think I know the source of what had caused your change," Boss started. "They've used something of a gorgon as a base for their poison," –Boss looked at him over his glasses- "but as you're a modified human, it had a different effect than expected."

Tao frowned as he tried to remember what exactly a gorgon was. It sounded familiar, but Tao couldn't think of what it was instantly.

"The most famous gorgon was called Medusa," Boss informed him.

…Ah. Yeah, that helped. Tao chuckled. "Her snakes were on her head, weren't they?" Tao quickly checked his tentacles didn't end with snake heads, and was glad to see they didn't. If he had been able to see what his tentacles could see… No, actually, that would have been kinda useful too.

"And she had a gaze that petrified as soon as she made eye contact," Boss said flatly.

Erk. "R-right, forgot about that, haha," Tao said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It would _not_ have been good to find out he had that when he woke up surrounded by the rest of the household.

"However," Boss said, frowning as he raised a hand to his chin, "both the composition of the poison and your reaction to it isn't something I've seen before, so at the moment, I'd hesitate giving you something to revert you back, in case I created even further, irreversible changes-" Tao winced, a couple of possibilities flashing through his mind. Yeah, he was fine with what he already had. "-if not kill you." Definitely didn't want _that_ either. "If I had some of the original sample however…"

Takeo nodded, his lips a thin line. "I lost track of the agent, but I'll-"

"We'll," came the chorus of corrections, and Tao grinned, squeezing Takeo's arm too.

Takeo huffed, a small smile on his face. "_We'll_ get it."

"Yep," Tao said, nodding. "And since I'm conscious again, we're _definitely_ going to get it now!"

He was met with a collection of groans and sighs. Tao blinked at them. What?

xOx

"Do you think you should be getting up already?" M-21 asked Tao, frowning. Regis and Miss Seira had gone to finish homework, while Boss and _he_ had left as well (Boss giving him an additional warning to not use the D drug; with how his DNA had rearranged itself, who knew how his body would react to it. Or they knew _exactly_ how his body would react.), leaving only Takeo and M-21 with Tao in the recovery room.

"Why not?" Tao said, swinging all of his tentacles over the side of the bed. They snaked everywhere, but they were also limp like he'd, well, dumped them all over the floor. Hmm. It felt weird knowing what his tentacles could feel; it was like his feet had suddenly grown three times longer, and that was before he got into how they were completely boneless. "I'm fine otherwise, and if I don't practice how to walk, you're going to have to carry me everywhere!"

"It'll help keep you out of trouble, then," Takeo muttered – he yelped when one of Tao's tentacles smacked him in the chest. Heh, okay, the extended reach was a nice bonus too.

Softly tapping the ends of his tentacles on the floor, Tao said, "Hug monsters don't walk on the tips of their tentacles, do they?" he mused. They could do it, Tao somehow knew, but it didn't seem _right_, either.

"I didn't know you wanted to be taller," M-21 said, a hint of a smirk on his face.

"You'd hit all the doorframes though," Takeo added, and Tao flailed at them both with his tentacles again, not really trying to hit them. They ducked anyway.

"I like my height, and you say that like I can't see," he said, folding his arms and grinning at them. Letting out a sigh, Tao stared down at his tentacles as he considered how to start. He eventually shrugged and did what he normally did when he was testing something: start the program, see what it initially did, fix it to get the results he wanted, and then start the process all over again.

Tao pushed himself off the bed and his tentacles splayed themselves out as if to catch him; he peered down at the upside-down umbrella shape his tentacles had formed themselves into, the tips curled outwards. The tentacles were also telling him that there were ten of them and it was strange knowing that, feeling his legs form a circle around him. "Okaaay…" That was one thing down; now to see how he moved. Seeing how he was either standing on his heels or his _knees_, Tao just knew it was going to be interesting.

Tao nudged his tentacles with his thoughts, trying to get them to move. They did, but only two tentacles on his sides flopped forward, which wasn't surprising, and even if he did try to move half of them as one, they weren't… Except Tao could feel a shift, a change in the tentacles, and he frowned, leaning his hip area back on the edge of the bed as he tried to figure out what was happening. As soon as he tried to track down what had happened though, he felt the change stop, but if he had been thinking about how to move…

He tried again, attempting to think exactly how he had just been doing. If he wanted to walk, he couldn't pretend they were the same as his original legs because… Oooh. So _that's_ how it worked. Tao dived right in, pointing his thoughts in the new direction and felt the tentacles react to them.

It took a couple of seconds, but Tao's regular legs came into view, the tentacles somehow fading out of sight – the weird thing was, he could still feel them, an undercurrent to his thoughts, but he could also wiggle his toes like normal, so it was probably something he was just going to have to get used to. Tao would take the double-feeling over being stuck with tentacles any time. To make sure, he lifted his leg and felt it – it was definitely there and not some sort of illusion.

"Sooo," he drew out as he lowered his leg, snickering, "are either of you carrying a spare pair of trousers?"

Takeo dragged his hand down over his face, sighing.

And they'd solved the toilet problem too! Awesome!

xOx

Once Tao had a pair of trousers -Boss had left a pair in the room, just in case- he tried walking again. And after years of being on two legs, it suddenly felt as if he'd gained another set of memories, his legs wanting to move in a way that was impossible for limbs that had, you know, _bones_.

He took an uncertain step forward, but he frowned at the insistent whispering in his mind that said using his tentacles would be _easier_, _smoother_, and the fact that another part of Tao's brain seemed inclined to agree was a little worrying.

"Is there something wrong?" Takeo asked, watching him carefully.

"Juuust that I might have more instincts packed away in my head than I realised," Tao admitted, taking another step. "On the other hand, I think it's just about moving, so when I'm all tentafied, I don't think I'll be falling onto my face all the time."

"Tenta-" M-21 sighed, shaking his head.

Tao grinned, closing the final gap between him and Takeo and M-21 and threw his arms around their shoulders. He only realised he'd taken a deep breath around their necks when he'd finished doing it, a part of him categorising what he had smelled: Takeo was rain, and M-21 was an open plain.

…Had he just…_scented_ them? That was weird. Huh. Guess his sense of smell had been affected, then.

"Come on," Tao told them, putting the thought to the back of his mind as he tugged them towards the door, "we've got a Union agent to find!" He could worry about that instinct later; it was harmless.

xOx

"Wow," Tao said, shaking his head as they made their way to his room, "maybe you _should_ have carried me." Because tripping over his own feet for the _fourth time_ was getting beyond embarrassing. He'd been able to catch himself each time, but really, four times. He knew how to walk! And every time he stumbled, Tao could feel a flash of the tentacles straining to be loosed, wanting to help. Which was nice of them, but it was best he didn't get too used to them before he didn't have them anymore.

On the other hand, he got to use Takeo and M-21 as living crutches, and there was no chance he'd end up dragging them _both_ down, sudden weight gain or no (except, did he only have that weight when he had the tentacles out since they weren't actually physically there anymore? Which didn't explain why he could still feel them, unless he had a really big case of phantom limbs).

"Now you're being lazy," M-21 said, but Tao could see his soft smile.

"Ah, no-one loves me!" Tao cried. He turned to Takeo, his eyes wide. "You'd carry me, if I needed it, wouldn't you?"

Takeo blustered an answer and then rushed to open his door. Tao didn't stumble when he did, because he'd braced himself for that happening, laughing as Takeo disappeared into his room. He heard M-21 snort, and Tao grinned at him, tipping his head.

M-21 only raised his eyebrows and Tao shook his head ruefully. Aah, why couldn't anyone in the house take a 'thanks'?

It wasn't long before Tao's main computer was humming to life, and Tao settled into his chair, swinging in it a little. Huh, he could feel his ghost-tentacles curling around the chair support, a feather-light touch in his mind, a few others winding around Takeo and M-21's ankles, but they didn't seem to notice. He tried pulling the tentacles away, but they didn't move. Huh. Weird.

"Did you get a good look at the agent?" Tao asked, his fingers flying over the keyboards as he brought up the programmes he needed.

"Mm," Takeo said, leaning over his shoulder, watching him work. "He was just under six foot, thin, and he had short brown hair." That wasn't a lot they could use to identify the agent, but Tao put them in anyway. "He was also wearing a green leather jacket."

The corners of Tao's lips twitched. "Do you think all agents inherently have a skewed sense of fashion," Tao mused as he put in the rest of the details, "or do you think it's how we deal with years of being experimented on?" By this point, all they had to do was look out for someone who dressed differently from the norm, and ta-da, Union agent. The only person who dressed what could be called 'normally' was Yuri, but he had gold eyes, so he still stood out. But seeing how clothing was pretty much the only place of freedom they had, it wasn't all that surprising, really.

"You're asking _us_?" M-21 said.

"…Right. We're a biased sample," Tao realised, his fingers never pausing, more and more windows flying open. "What do you think about asking the others?"

"You can ask them," Takeo said, shaking his head.

"_Now_ who's being lazy?" Tao sighed. "But if you really want to know what Regis thinks of how we dress ourselves, I'll go ask him once we're finished." That way, he'd get more practice with walking and not falling face first into a wall.

"Wha - no!"

Tao leaned back and grinned up at Takeo. "Are you going to feel embarrassed if Regis says he finds you 'inelegant'?"

M-21 snorted before Takeo could reply. "If Regis didn't like how we dressed ourselves, he would have told us as soon as he saw us."

"Heh, yeah, he would have." He'd heard about Regis' comments to Shark. "Aaand done!" Tao said, double-checking the search parameters he'd put in, and then glanced back at Takeo, who was glaring mulishly at him. "Look okay to you?"

Takeo scanned what was on the monitors before nodding. "Yeah."

"Great!" Tao said, standing up as his stomach started to growl again. "Now I gotta get something else to eat." Maybe he had to eat the weight he'd gained before he stopped feeling hungry. How much energy output did growing tentacles and using them have, anyway? He felt like he should have a higher energy output, just through sheer paying attention to what the tentacles were telling him and making sure he kept his regular legs in sight.

"We're cooking," Takeo and M-21 said quickly, their expressions panicked.

"Aw, come on!" Tao said, huffing. "I have all these limbs now!" He waved to where the tentacles would be. "That's got to help!"

"No," Takeo said firmly, shaking his head. "That means you'll add _even more_ strange ingredients."

"If Boss can-"

"That's _Frankenstein_."

They stared at one another before Tao threw his hands up in exasperation. "Okay, fine – you two're cooking." He could do it when they were asleep anyway.

xOx

Tao sighed as he padded down to the kitchen – he'd only been able to sleep for about three hours before his stomach had woke him up, demanding food. He really hoped his body would settle soon; he could deal with lack of sleep, but it felt nice being well-rested all the same. The ache in his chest had gone, so that was good; his headache hadn't though, feeling a lot worse than when he'd gone to sleep.

"Tao? What are you doing awake at this time?"

He turned around, grinning at Boss. "Midnight snack."

"I see." Boss nodded slowly. "You must still be lacking in protein. Very well." Boss began heading towards his lab and Tao started following him.

"Ah, Boss," Tao said, waiting for him to turn around. When he did, Tao said, "Do you mind…?" He held up a hand, waving his fingers.

Smiling, Boss lent him his elbow and when Tao touched it, he sighed, the headache flitting away. Boss smelled like a thunderstorm, practically crackling the skin of Tao's nose, and he breathed a laugh - that fit a little too well for Boss.

"What did you do to regain your legs?" Boss asked once they were downstairs and he started making preparations. When Tao saw rice and chicken pieces being pulled out, he had to guess Boss was planning on making dakjuk. Which… Heh. It was food usually for people who were recovering and/or ill.

"I just had to concentrate on thinking about them," Tao told him, watching Boss work. Tao didn't get to see him cook that often, usually only seeing the rows of ramen bowls afterwards, or whatever new food _he_ had mentioned; it wasn't like seeing Boss fighting, attacking something with overwhelming force, but there was a flow to how Boss moved, a rhythm that just spoke of practice and knowing exactly what to do.

"Mm. Do you feel well enough to work tomorrow? Well," Boss added, chuckling, "today."

"Heh." Tao nodded. "Yeah. I only feel hungrier, and by the time we have to go, I'll be fine."

"That's good to hear," Boss said as he started to boil the chicken.

Tao grinned at him.

It wasn't long until they were waiting for the dakjuk to finish simmering (Boss hadn't let him help cook either), but then Tao realised something.

"Hey, Boss," Tao said, looking at him in confusion, "if I needed protein, why did you give me ramen?" There were a lot of other things Boss could have cooked for him instead.

Boss peered at him over his glasses, smiling. "Why do you think they're mutually exclusive?"

"Because there wasn't any-" Tao remembered who he was talking to and burst out laughing. "Ah, never mind," he said, waving a hand. If Boss could reverse-engineer an enhancement pill and improve it in the space of a few hours, he could easily add all the nutrients a body needed into a bowl of ramen without affecting the taste. And considering how often they had ramen, they had really needed that.

The dakjuk was gone in minutes, and with a full stomach, Tao went back to bed after bidding Boss goodnight.

xOx

Tao let out a whoop, slinging an arm around Shinwoo's shoulders, who laughed in response. "Did ya miss me?" They hadn't seen each other for a few hours, but it was a _few hours_. And who wouldn't miss him?

…Huh, touching Shinwoo felt different from when he touched Takeo or M-21; Tao couldn't describe it - he'd already been in constant contact with Takeo and M-21 on the way to the school so he couldn't compare how touching Shinwoo chased away the headache, but he was definitely getting that distinction from…somewhere. Probably the tentacles.

"Tao," Takeo said, his voice tight, and Tao glanced over his shoulder at him. What was wrong? He couldn't sense anyone else close-by, but if Takeo or M-21 had seen someone…

Both Takeo and M-21 were very firmly staring at him in the face, their eyes not moving, and it was because of that that Tao focused his attention on his legs and – uh. That wasn't good. He could still feel his regular legs, but the feedback from his tentacles was also stronger than it had been before – and one tentacle was a second away from curling around Ik-han's wrist. Tao jammed down on his thoughts, corralling them, and he let out a little sigh when he felt the tentacles retreat to wherever they had gone. He didn't want to know the point where his tentacles could be felt by others, especially with the children. But if he needed to keep concentrating to keep his regular legs visible it shouldn't be too much of a problem, now that he knew about it.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shinwoo asked, blinking at him.

"Hehe, nothing!" Tao said, grinning. "Just those two are feeling a little unloved, so we should talk with them more." He nodded behind them.

He heard Takeo and M-21 choke at that, not hiding his grin in the slightest when all the children turned around and started talking to them.

xOx

"Tao…" M-21 said, frowning as he eyed Tao while they patrolled the school grounds. "What are you doing?"

Tao stopped digging into his packet of drumstix and directed his thoughts downwards. His tentacles weren't out –he glanced down anyway just in case, and nope, still not out- so what was M-21 talking about…? "Nothing. What do you think I'm doing?"

"You…" M-21 sighed, shaking his head. "You've been…giving off a scent since we arrived at the school, and…" M-21 paused, his frown deepening. "I think you're marking the school."

"Marking – like territorial marking?" Tao stared at M-21, realisation dawning in him. "Hey, is werewolf-you getting annoyed I'm encroaching his territory?"

"Enc-" M-21 groaned, grimacing. "I haven't – this isn't-" He stopped, huffing.

"I'd try to stop doing it," Tao continued, "but I have no idea how I'm doing it." He didn't feel like he was doing anything, and his tentacles were telling him everything was normal. Which, yeah, wasn't an indication of _anything_ because, hello, tentacles, but he'd hoped they would tell him when they were doing something. He didn't want a fight on his hands because of something he could stop – and huh, they should probably check if his fighting style had changed, actually. It shouldn't have, but it was better they checked before the next fight, just in case.

"It doesn't bother me," M-21 finally said, shaking his head.

Tao hummed, looking up at the sky, twirling a drumstix between his fingers. "If you say so, but if the Boss finds you re-marking the school, I don't think-"

"_Tao_-!"

He couldn't help but laugh; it was _far_ too much fun joking with him!

xOx

Tao sighed at the shredded remnants of his trousers as he rubbed the back of his neck, some of his tentacles helpfully picking them up and handing (tentacling?) them to him. Well, _that_ hadn't worked. As soon as the spar between nearly all of the RK-5 had started and Tao had switched his attention from his legs to attacking and defending, his tentacles had come back, tearing through his trousers.

With enough practice, he'd be able to multitask all three at the same time, but until then… It would be a bit of a hassle pausing training every time he went back to his room to grab yet another pair of trousers; even if he brought them down to the lab, he'd still need to leave the room to change.

So unless… Well, that was a temporary solution. "Hey, Miss Seira," Tao said, turning to her, eyeing her up and down, "what's your waist size?"

Regis spluttered.

"'Cause I was wondering if I could borrow one of your skirts before I end up going through my entire wardrobe," Tao continued. That way, it didn't matter what form he was in, he'd be covered and 'decent' either way! …It was a good thing his fighting style didn't involve a lot of jumping or kicks.

Miss Seira didn't say anything for a few seconds, but then she nodded. "I have one that should fit you."

"All right!" Tao said, grinning at her. "Thanks, Miss Seira!"

She gave him a small smile and then left.

"Okay," Tao said, glancing at his tentacles for a second, and then back up at Regis.

Regis gazed back at him. "Yes?"

"I'm just going to use you as a goal," Tao told him, humming as he collected his thoughts. "Stay there – I'm gonna try and walk to you."

It was…weird, trying to work out how to move with tentacles. Grabbing things was easy, because it wasn't that different from using his hands, really, just a bit simpler – so walking shouldn't be that different either, if all he had to do was direct his thoughts. The tentacles could hold his weight, so Tao didn't think he had to drag himself across the floor to move, especially when their default mode kept him elevated. Hm, don't think about the individual steps, but just that he wanted to reach Regis – huh, that worked.

Tao had only moved a couple centimetres before he started trying to work out how his tentacles moved. His tentacles instantly started tangling around each other.

Tao chuckled, shaking his head, and tried again, not intending to pay attention to his tentacles this time. He could figure out how he did it later (Maybe he could record himself; he'd have to set up multiple cameras though, since he wouldn't be able to see all the tentacles moving on just one).

He slung an arm around Regis' shoulders when he reached him, taking in his slightly sour starfruit scent in one deep breath. "How did I look?" Tao asked him, grinning.

"Ridiculous," Regis said flatly, "as you always do."

Tao snickered, turning to M-21, who was the furthest away from him. "Maybe you just have to get used to seeing me walk like that." He let go of Regis and started tentacling his way towards M-21.

Who stepped away as soon as he neared him, a small smirk on his face.

Tao sent him a beseeching look. "Heeey…" But Tao grinned instantly after saying that, and he didn't pause, pushing himself to move faster.

M-21's smirk widened and he leapt away just as Tao reached him.

Bemused, Tao watched him, his tentacles pawing at the ground, like they were testing how hard it was. Tao bounced up and down experimentally, but his tentacles didn't want to leave the ground all at the same time. "Huh," he said, staring down at them, "don't think I can jump like this." Maybe if he thought of it like a piston? Gather himself up, lower his centre of gravity… Nope.

"No," Tao said, scratching his head, "I can't jump like this." It felt weird, not being able to do that, but he was glad they'd done this, or else who knew what could have happened if they'd found that out in the middle of a fight.

He hummed, and then shrugged, dashing towards M-21. He wasn't able to reach M-21 before M-21 got out of range again, but he hadn't expected to. Tao couldn't help but grin at the sight of M-21's flash of surprise on his face, even while he agreed with him – he was faster with the tentacles, with better balance too, so that could help offset his lack of ability to jump a bit.

Tao had only just been able to snag M-21 by the sleeve when the door hissed open and Miss Seira walked in, a–

"Is that a kilt?" Tao asked gleefully as he let go of M-21 to go to her side, lobbing his trousers next to his camcorder. And, actually… He recognised it – it was the one he'd helped her to order online some time ago, when she was curious about the different kinds of clothes other cultures wore.

She nodded.

When she opened it up before handing it to him, Tao realised why she'd chosen that particular piece of clothing. "The others really wouldn't fit," he said as he took it from her.

"No," she said wryly.

Tao grinned at her and then looked down as he started to wrap the kilt around his waist. He wouldn't have been able to put on a skirt, not with all the tentacles in the way – his 'hips' were a _lot_ bigger when he had the tentacles out (which made a lot of sense, seeing how he had ten of them), and unless the skirt had some really good elastic, Tao didn't think it would be able handle him trying to squeeze all of them through at once without snapping.

It wasn't hard to figure out how to put on the kilt and Tao straightened it out once all the buckles were secured. The wool was a little rough on the tentacles, but it wasn't too distracting, so that was okay.

With a hand on the top of the kilt, just in case, Tao transformed his tentacles to his regular legs. The lab floor was cold under his bare feet (huh, the tentacles weren't as affected by the temperature?), but even with him switching what foot he stood on to lessen contact with it, when Tao let go, the kilt stayed in place and didn't slip at all. Good.

"Heheh, thanks, Miss Seira!" He took a step towards her and gave her a hug, breathing in her sharp glacial mountain scent.

"Okay," he said, turning to face them all, "let's see if we can do this now."

The others nodded and the second after that, they all rushed towards each other.

Tao blocked M-21's punch with an arm, and tried to sweep his feet from under him, but M-21 jumped out the way.

He caught sight of Regis speeding towards him, and he tried to dodge but Tao felt the exact second his tentacle-instincts surged, the tentacles replacing his legs between one step and the next, and while Tao sighed, he was still able to get out of the way – into Miss Seira's path.

He ducked and, huh, his tentacles definitely took up more floor space – but he could use that.

Someone brushed against one of his tentacles and he looped it around their leg and _yanked_.

"Shit!"

Heh. That was Takeo down. Okay, he was starting to figure these out. Now, if he could keep his regular legs when he wanted to, that would be great.

It didn't take long before Tao got 'knocked out', and after double-checking the camcorder was still recording and everyone was still in shot, he went over to Takeo's side. Takeo had sat down on the floor, leaning back on the wall (they'd tried to bring down furniture once; after M-21 accidently wrecked it in one slash, they'd decided against ever doing that again) and Tao blinked down at him once he got there. Tao snickered as he changed his tentacles back and then settled down next to Takeo, stretching. The floor was, unsurprisingly, still cold and Tao adjusted the kilt so he was sitting on it.

"What?" Takeo said, still watching the others.

"How do tentacle monsters sit?" With their tentacles out in front of them, or curled up underneath them in a pile?

Takeo blinked and didn't say anything for a few seconds, his eyebrows creasing. "Is it that important?"

"Heh. No."

While they waited for the others to finish, Tao held his hand up, calling his electricity to him. It came easily, crackling as it burst into existence. Though… Hm. Tao glanced past his hand and at his legs.

Would he still be able to do that when he had his tentacles out? They should, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure. Tao changed his legs back to his tentacles and he saw Takeo turn his head towards him from the corner of his eyes.

"Just checking a couple of things," Tao told him, opening his palm. The electricity still came, exactly the same as before.

Tao slid his gaze to look at Takeo when he thought of something. He could call his electricity to his hands – could he do it with his tentacles?

Hmm. It had been a while since he'd tried focusing his electricity through something that wasn't his hands, but it really wasn't that much different. He lifted one tentacle, placed its tip against Takeo's leg, and then sent a small charge through it.

Takeo's leg twitched and Tao grinned. Good; he could do it.

Takeo sighed, rolling his leg side to side. "And you needed to do that," he said flatly.

"Yup," Tao said, nodding. "It could come in handy later." And if not, Tao was sure he could think of something he could do with it.

Regis joined them next, just as Tao was pulling out his cable. Well, he'd already poked Takeo, so Tao directed his cable towards Regis, this time not charging it, since he'd already tested that.

When he started moving his cable though, Tao could see one tentacle move in the same way as the cable and he chuckled at the sight. Yeah, they did feel similar – he was going to have to figure out how to differentiate between them.

"Yes?" Regis said when Tao's cable tapped him in the arm.

"Nothing."

"Hmph."

M-21 won that spar, and before they started the next one, Tao decided there wasn't any point changing back to his regular legs again, not if he was going to end up tentacled less than a minute later.

"Heh," Tao said afterwards when they were going back upstairs, the shredded remains of his trousers in his arms, a tentacle curled around Regis' hip, another wrapped around M-21's wrist, "I think we – ow!" Tao tasted blood. What…?

"Tao?" Takeo's eyes flicked down to Tao's lips, and then Takeo frowned.

"It's nothing," Tao said, waving a hand, a couple of his tentacles making the same gesture. "I just-" It got a little harder to talk when Takeo leaned over his tentacles and put his fingers to his lips, pulling them apart.

"You have fangs," Takeo said, his voice faint, letting go of Tao's lips and stepping back. "You didn't used to have fangs before."

Tao poked at his teeth with his tongue and – yeeeah, his incisors did _not_ used to be that long. They felt rounder, too.

Takeo was still staring at him and after the last revelation, Tao was fairly sure he wasn't going to like what else Takeo was seeing. "Your eyes are slitted."

Well, damn.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary**: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.

Contains tentacles.

Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a _lot_ more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.

Set post-season 4, and before season 5.

Written for tentaclebigbang Yeeeep. The link to the art post is in my profile!

Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! *hearts*

I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there _really is_ an unholy amount of crack in this fic.

Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD

* * *

**************Adjust**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Boss frowned over a monitor while Tao perched himself on the end of the scanner, a tentacle wrapped around either an ankle or waist. Since six tentacles were occupied, Tao was pretty sure the rest of the RK-5 were all accounted for.

"I have been careless," Boss said quietly, adjusting his glasses. "Your body is still changing – I hadn't realised because I'd only taken the one sample." He sighed, pursing his lips.

"It's fine, Boss," Tao said, waving a hand. "It's not like you could have known." But the adjustment period was over and they really had to find the agent that had done this.

"I'll go see if my computer's found anything; it should be finished now anyway." Tao let go of everyone, and headed towards his room.

"Do you need any help?" Takeo asked.

Tao shook his head. "Nah. _And_," he added, grinning, "I can walk to my room, so I'll be fine." Because what had been causing the problem in the first place was getting his wires crossed between his regular legs and his tentacles, and since his tentacles were already out, he shouldn't have as much problems as before.

The others didn't look that convinced, but after they walked back to the house together, they let him go to his own room.

xOx

Tao sighed at the results his search at yielded: nothing; the search parameters must have been too strict. Just as he was about to refine them, Tao frowned, feeling his tentacles twitch around the computer's cables.

"Yanking _those_ out won't help anyone," he murmured, coaxing them away, except others were curling around whatever available surface they could, and seeing how much reach he had now, they could cover a lot of ground.

Every time he unwrapped one from whatever it was holding, another three had already latched onto something else. It didn't help that Tao could tell his concentration was in pieces – he used to be able to stare at his computer screen for hours on end, scanning for the data he needed, hacking into whatever facility that had the information the DA-5 wanted, but now, he could barely stand to do it for five minutes before his mind wandered, and it had nothing to do with untangling the tentacles from whatever they had decided to hold on to – he would have completely ignored them before.

Okay, if his tentacles were starting to affect his thought processes, they really had to go. Tao resisted biting his lip, in case he sliced it open again, and tapped his fingers on his desk instead. And half of his tentacles were tapping the same beat. Aaand he was getting distracted again. He was going to have to manually search for the agent, but Tao knew he wasn't going to be able to do it, not right then with his attention scattered across the floor like it currently was.

Tao sighed, rubbing his forehead as he lifted himself away from his computer and went to bed. Maybe rest would help him regain his concentration. He didn't bother changing his tentacles back – there wasn't much point if they turned into tentacles again while he was sleeping.

xOx

Tao woke up with a groan, the headache pulsing behind his eyes, like someone was stamping on his head to the beat of his heart. No, faster than that. Ugh. He flowed out of bed, heading to his door through more his tentacles telling him what they felt rather than through sight.

He had no idea what he was doing, the white noise ringing inside his head, instincts filling the rest of the space. He caught the familiar flash of – it didn't matter what their hair colour was – what mattered was they were _right there_ and what he needed was-!

Tao wrapped his tentacles around them, burying his face in the crook of their neck and breathed in deeply again and again as he placed his hands on their shoulders, taking in their icy scent, hearing the distant chant of _mine, mine, mine!_ in his head. He didn't care; he just wanted the headache to _stop_.

It eventually did, the headache retreating, and Tao sagged, still holding-

Tao's eyes snapped open and he blanched, the air caught in his throat, realising what he'd just been doing.

"Tao?"

"A - ah, Miss Seira…" He couldn't stop shaking as he let her go, and he flinched when she grabbed a tentacle in a tight grip.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked softly.

"Ye – I – I don't know," he admitted, feeling a different lightheadedness, and he tried to just _breathe_, in and out. He couldn't think straight; his thoughts were an utter jumbled _mess_, nothing forming completely before it dissipated.

"I _am_ feeling better," Tao said, trying to explain, trying to put his thoughts in order, feeling his tentacles knot around each other, "but I had to do _that_ to feel better and-"

"You think you made me uncomfortable?" Miss Seira asked, a small smile forming on her lips.

"I grabbed you without warning and _sniffed_ you." Tao ran his hand through his hair, wanting to move, wanting to pace, but Miss Seira still had his tentacle and she didn't look like she was going to let go any time soon. He gestured out wide instead. "I don't know what I might do next! I could have _hurt_-" And Miss Seira was nearly full-blown smiling now, so he was obviously missing something but Tao couldn't work out what.

"Tao," Miss Seira said softly, and there was something in the way she said it that quietened his thoughts, told him to listen, "you wouldn't have harmed me. I saw your expression when you left your room – you were…desperate, not thinking, but you would not have harmed me."

"_Now_," Tao stressed. "What about later? What if-" She tightened her grip on his tentacle and _pulled_, nearly sending him sprawling before the rest of his tentacles caught him.

Oh, yeah, she was still stron-

_Thunk_.

Tao stared up at the sleek, black business end of Miss Seira's Death Scythe – she hadn't been able to fit it sideways in Boss' narrow corridor, and had had to point it forwards, the blade a few centimetres away from his cheek.

…Right, he forgot she was a Clan Leader sometimes, too.

"I can handle myself."

Tao laughed, finally relaxing and dipping his head. "Yeah, you can."

Miss Seira let go of his tentacle and Tao straightened, all of his tentacles doing a little 'flick', starting at the base and travelling down, all the way to the tip, as if they were checking to make sure they were all still in working order. Which was probably exactly what they were doing.

"Do you know what happened?" Miss Seira asked once his tentacles had settled, her Death Scythe hissing out of view.

Tao winced. "I just woke up really needing to do that." He sighed, his shoulders slumping. The instincts were the same as before, but more concentrated, more insistent to be relieved, a burn rather than an itch. What was going to happen if it eventually turned into an all-encompassing fire?

Her eyebrows drew together as she frowned. "You have to be in constant contact with someone."

"Well, yeah," Tao said, scratching his head. They both knew that. "But I've been doi… Oh." He _had_ been doing that, up until he went to sleep. "I need to sleep with someone every night?"

"What?"

Tao turned around to see Takeo, M-21 and Regis walking towards them, a range of confusion and resigned exasperation written on their faces.

"Heh," he said, ducking his head, "the instincts are getting worse." And he hadn't realised one of his tentacles had started to rub itself against Miss Seira's palm; he wasn't sure if he should twitch it away or make it grab her hand, not after what had just happened. After a second, he glanced at her, and when she nodded, he slid it around her wrist. "Not touching someone for a couple of hours while sleeping still makes the headache worse, and when I wake up I just…grab the closest available person."

The others stared at him, before they shared a look. "Make up a rota, a different person each night?" Takeo asked, glancing at everyone else.

"Hey, wait," Tao said weakly, realising what Takeo was saying. The others nodded to Takeo's question without any hesitation. "I just said the instincts are getting worse – I don't know what I might do in my sleep."

He was speared by flat looks, which were completely unjustified, for once.

"We're trying to make sure you aren't affected by them as much as possible," M-21 said, crossing his arms.

Well, that was true, but still! He didn't want the others to get hurt, especially if they had put themselves in that situation to help him.

"And what would you do if our roles were reversed?" Regis asked, an eyebrow raised.

"…The exact same thing you're doing right now," Tao said, a breathy chuckle underneath his words. "Actually, no," he realised, shaking his head. "I'd try to get us _all_ in the same bed with whoever was tentafied, so then we're all together and proving there was nothing to worry about." And that way, they'd also be able to wake each other up, one way or another, if something _did_ start happening.

"All right," M-21 said, nodding.

Tao blinked when there weren't any protests to what M-21 said. "Really?" he said, looking at everyone else.

"Of course," Miss Seira said, and Tao shook his head, his mood lifting.

"We're _definitely_ going to need a bigger bed, then," Tao mused, trying to think of what dimensions they would need to fit four people and a tentacle monster. …Only four? "Hey, do you think _he'll_ join us too?"

Takeo treated him with a wide-eyed stare. "You're thinking about asking _him_?"

"Yeah," Tao said, nodding, "why not? That way we'll _definitely_ know I won't hurt someone and, I don't know, maybe he's been wanting hugs but hasn't asked?" Tao hadn't spent that much time around him since gaining his tentacles, partially out of habit and partially out of the smidgeon of self-preservation he had at not annoying either him or the Boss. "And if we don't ask, we won't know!"

Takeo sighed, Regis grimacing next to him.

"We'll ask Frankenstein if he can make us a bed," M-21 said, shaking his head. "You can ask _him_ if he wants to join us."

Tao tilted a grin at him. "Boss should still in his lab right now," he told them, "and _he's_ probably gonna be in the living room," he mused as he drummed his fingers on a bicep. Whenever Boss wasn't involved with anything at the school, he tended to gravitate to his lab, checking up on his experiments, and it was almost a given the first thing _he_ would do in the morning was have a cup of tea. Or a bowl of ramen. Or both.

"How are you going to ask him?" Takeo asked him as they made their way downstairs.

"Dunno," Tao admitted, shrugging, curling a couple tentacles around several more wrists. "'Do you wanna sleep with us tonight?'"

"Not like that," M-21 said, a pained expression flashing on his face.

"…Heh, yeah." Best to make it as clear as possible without any chance of misinterpretation – who knew if _he_ had picked up any slang from their heads.

"What's wrong with that question?" Regis asked, frowning.

Whoops. "Humans, ah, sometimes use the word in a different way than actually meaning sleeping in a bed. But this where I get off, so I'll see ya later," Tao said, heading in the direction of the living room.

There was a second's pause. "I am _not_ telling you," M-21 said flatly, and Tao could barely control his laughter as the two started snarking at each other again.

Tao frowned though when he reached the living room door - one of his tentacles had already opened it for him before he could reach it with an arm. His tentacles reacting to his thoughts before he told them to do anything was getting a little worrying, especially after what had just happened.

When he pushed the door open, _he_ was there like Tao thought he would be, sitting on the couch with a steaming cup of tea in front of him.

"Morning!" Tao said, smiling, and _he_ dipped his head in greeting. "I have a question for you," Tao said, as he eased himself down at the head of the table. He felt a couple of his tentacles edge towards him, but Tao pulled them back before they made contact. "It turns out I'm a little worse off in the instincts department than I realised." He paused, spreading his hands out. "I can't handle not touching someone for hours at a time, especially when sleeping sooo the others made a plan for someone to play tentacle teddy bear every night," –he took a breath- "but I thought _everyone_ playing it at the same time would be better for, uh, safety reasons, in case my instincts turn violent." Tao glanced at the door before focusing on him again. "Anyway, they've gone to ask the Boss about making us a bigger bed but, I was wondering if you also wanted to join us?"

_He_ didn't say anything for a few seconds, but Tao just waited, a small grin growing on his face when he heard him humming. If he was thinking about it, then he wanted to do it as well.

"Yes, I would."

Tao let out a 'whoop!' and nearly hugged him right there and then (because he wanted to, not because the tentacle instincts were in control, Tao was very sure of that) but since this was _him_ it would be better if they started with little steps.

He slowly slithered a couple of tentacles in _his_ direction, over the table and sofa, making sure they were seen (and they should be anyway; black bands on skin coloured tentacles did not make good enough camouflage against black leather). _He_ watched them curiously, Tao was sure, as his tentacles neared him and Tao flipped one onto his lap. When _he_ raised his hand and placed it on a tentacle, giving it a few brief pats before returning to his tea, Tao saw that as a good sign; maybe he really _had_ been wanting hugs.

Tao's grin fell when a part of his mind _crooned_, pushing to wrap _him_ up in his tentacles and draw him close, wanting more of his touch. Tao yanked his tentacles back, gasping, his eyes wide. That – no. He really had to do something about these instincts ambushing him – and if that was how he reacted to someone touching him back, was sharing a bed with everyone a really good idea?

_He_ blinked at Tao, a small frown on his face. "Your instincts?" he asked and Tao gave him a short nod.

"Think I'm going to have to start taking notes on all the instincts I have now, hah," Tao said, trying to sound more cheerful than he felt. "I'm starting to lose track."

The living room door opened and the others came into the room. Tao looked up and gave them a small wave, glad for the distraction. "What did the Boss say?"

"He's making it to fit six people," M-21 said, glancing at _him_.

Heh, Boss knew his master well.

There was a pause. "Tao, what's wrong?" Takeo was looking between him and _him_. Damn. He shouldn't be surprised someone noticed the awkwardness.

"Eheheh," Tao said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm adding another instinct to the list – I'm not just a hug monster; I'm a hug monster that likes being hugged. I think." He glanced back at _him_. "My tentacles like being touched anyway."

The others looked incredulously at _him_, and Tao chuckled weakly. It wasn't hard to put together what had happened.

"But I'm fine," he assured them, waving his hands.

The looks the others were giving him were more than a little disbelieving.

"I didn't try to – uh, they wanted to?" he admitted. But he had been able to control himself this time – the urge definitely hadn't been as strong. Touching the others beforehand must have helped to keep them at bay.

"Tao," Takeo said, looking him over worriedly, "are you sure you're all right?"

"I am," he said, nodding. As much as he joked, he wouldn't lie about that. "It wasn't anywhere near as bad as what happened when I woke up."

"Hmm."

"Anyway," Tao said, clapping his hands, "we should be getting ready for school." Tao almost wasn't sure they would move, but once he started ushering them out the living room, and they had checked he really was as okay as he said he was, they left to go to their own rooms.

xOx

Tao grumbled as he rubbed his forehead while he, Takeo and M-21 walked to school – he knew it wouldn't do anything about his headache, but he still did it in the wistful hope it would.

"You should have stayed home," M-21 said, frowning.

"Nah," Tao said, shaking his head. "It's not getting worse at least, and I can't leave you two alone – you'd be lost without me! Anyway," he continued when both Takeo and M-21 snorted, "unless one of you wants to come back home with me and watch me tinker about with some of my gadgets…" Tao ended with a shrug. He'd widened the search parameters for the agent, because with his distraction levels, he still didn't think he was up to his usual standard.

"Then again," Tao added thoughtfully, "I probably wouldn't be able to manage that either, so then I'd get bored pretty quickly." He smiled at them, seeing them twitch at that realisation. At least at the school he'd be kept occupied and there wasn't much chance of him being separated from both Takeo or M-21 for extended periods of time either.

Tao cocked his head to the side, jostling Takeo's and M-21's elbows when he felt the press of the tentacle-instincts, wanting him to transform his legs. He grimaced as he supressed them; he could easily control keeping them out of sight though, so long as they didn't get stronger.

He saw the children in front of him and hid his wince. So much for not leaving Takeo and M-21's sides, but the children would know something was wrong if he didn't go to them.

"Yooo!" Tao said, raising his hand to greet the children, trying to smile as carefreely as he normally did. It didn't feel that natural, but the children didn't seem to notice, responding like they usually did. He brushed Takeo's and M-21's elbows one last time before he left their sides, hoping it would be enough to keep the headache at bay.

When Ik-han accidently touched his hand while describing a new laptop he was thinking of getting, the buzzing in Tao's mind barely acknowledged it, treating it like an abnormal blip rather than a relief. Tao wasn't sure if he should be happy or not, but at least it meant he didn't get distracted enough to lose his grip on the tentacle-instincts.

xOx

This was getting ridiculous, Tao thought as he gritted his teeth, trying to not be obvious, trying to not do what his instincts wanted and just drape himself all over Takeo or M-21 (or both at the same time), covering as much of them as possible with his own body as they walked home.

Takeo noticed anyway, giving him a light nudge with an elbow, and Tao gave him a small smile in return. It wasn't much, but it would help stave off the headache for a little longer. His tentacles wanting to be out had at least stayed at a manageable level over the course of the day.

Tao suddenly felt the familiar prickle at the back of his neck when he was being watched. He bit back a groan. Damn. He did _not_ want to be in a fight with how scattered his thought processes were at that moment, but, Tao had to admit, it was better to fight now than see how he fought _later_. With how his instincts had been escalating, he might not have even noticed the person.

He shared a look with Takeo and M-21 who shook their heads. They couldn't see where the person was, which usually meant…

"Rooftops?" Tao guessed, wanting to sigh, because if the agents' dress sense didn't give them away, then their habit of standing on top of tall buildings and spying on people definitely did.

"Where else would they be?" M-21 said dryly.

Later, when he could concentrate properly, Tao was going to install cameras all over the city's rooftops because he _was_ going to be that bored at one point and early warning systems were always awesome.

Tao handed Takeo and M-21 earpieces on their way up after sending a text to Miss Seira and Regis to tell them what was happening. It didn't take them long to reach the rooftops, but there was no-one waiting for them when they got there.

"That's a bit rude," Tao said, peering at the other rooftops, a hand on Takeo's elbow. "Don't they know the rules of engagement?" Agents hung about on rooftops until they were noticed, and there was a meeting on top of them. Or in the park, sometimes. Banter, posturing or snark were exchanged. Then they fought and M-21 lost his shirt. On the other hand, if the agents _did_ follow the rules of engagement, that meant the children were dragged in and kidnapped, so it was probably a good thing the agents weren't following the script.

"There are rules?" M-21 said, and Tao didn't have to turn around to know he'd raised an eyebrow.

"Of course there are," Tao quipped. "There are basic rules that our fights usually follow." Hadn't they noticed that?

M-21 snorted, and Takeo shook his head.

They waited there for a few more minutes, Tao straining his senses to hear or see anything, but there was still nothing.

"Take the long route home?" Tao asked, though he didn't have to – he knew Takeo and M-21 would agree, if they somehow hadn't already thought of that, which was unlikely.

"I need more shampoo," Takeo said with a small shrug, his eyes still scanning the darkening skyline. The way the clouds had gathered, it looked like it would start raining soon.

"Number 2," Tao said as they made their way to ground level again, "you use up two bottles every time you're in the shower."

Takeo shot him a dry look, and Tao countered it with an innocent one; if they were going to pretend their change of direction was natural, then he had to act like normal too.

They started meandering once they were at ground level, avoiding the busy main streets and keeping to the quieter back alleys. They were left alone for only a few minutes before Tao felt the familiar prickle again. Hm. Agents who were actually trying to be sneaky. That wasn't good; that usually meant they thought while fighting and didn't rely on pure raw power. And if these were the people who had poisoned him in the first place…

"Guess we can't buy your shampoo," Tao murmured, tilting his head up to the sky, trying to catch a glimpse of their tail, but no such luck. There was a new kind of headache building in Tao's head, one that was both similar and different to the one that wanted him to hug everyone – he could tell it was tied to the tentacle-instincts, but he couldn't tell what they wanted him to do, other than they were there and its presence was growing with every passing moment. Tao hid his sigh as he shook his head; now was not the time to develop even more unpredictable instincts - but it wasn't like the instincts were going to listen to him, so he just had to deal with it and supress them as much as possible before they made him do something else unexpected.

"I'll use yours instead."

Tao couldn't stop one side of his mouth curling up. "Fine, but in exchange, I get to put more of my stuff in your room."

He got a snort as a reply. "That isn't equal."

Tao snickered, but didn't continue the argument in case they got too distracted. He had been right about the weather though – a small drizzle had started to fall, swiftly growing heavier. It smelled different from Takeo's scent, Tao realised – Takeo was more earthy, not as sharp, and _green_ too, reminding Tao of the last time they'd been in a forest.

Ten minutes later, they were still being followed with no indication that the agents were intending to reveal their presence and Tao was starting to get _bored_. The rain was still getting heavier, starting to seep through his jacket, and while it wasn't enough to make any of them ill –he knew he and Takeo had been through far worse without any repercussions, and he didn't doubt M-21 had been through similar- Tao would still prefer to be inside and dry. Maybe he was going soft after living in a proper house for months; something like getting a little wet wouldn't have bothered him before.

Being constantly on edge hadn't helped his headache at all either, and before it could get worse, Tao decided to try something.

"Hey," he said as he pulled out his pocket computer, "cover me."

Takeo moved so he was more in front him while M-21 took a step back. Tao waited a few seconds, just in case that was what the agents wanted for whatever reason, but when nothing happened, Tao switched his pocket computer on, waiting for everything to load, following the path Takeo set.

Maybe the agents were trying to intimidate them by following them? Or maybe they were trying to really bore them to death, and then the agents would attack once their guard was down. It was either that, or the agents were trying to follow them home. Tao snorted. Yeah, _that_ wasn't going to happen either.

It didn't take him long to hack into the surrounding security cameras, his fingers on automatic and it was the fifth camera feed Tao hacked into that he found what he was looking for. Tao stared at the brown-haired agent thoughtfully, partially hidden behind a black umbrella. He was on the street level too, not on the rooftops. Huh. Definitely different. "You didn't mention the piercings," Tao mentioned. He could see light being reflected from one of the agent's eyebrows.

"I saw him from behind," Takeo replied dryly.

Yeah, now he was just being purposely annoying. Tao brought up a couple more feeds now that he knew where to look, each one with the agent in view (two were panning, but he'd have to switch them soon anyway once the agent moved).

"Park, then," Tao said, keeping an eye on the agent. If he didn't want to engage them on the rooftops or try to am-

Tao saw the agent reach into his jacket and something in Tao snapped at seeing a _threat_ directed towards them. Except it wasn't because it was directed towards them – it was because the threat was directed towards _Takeo and M-21_ and they were _his_. _His_ family and it only took a second's thought to transform his legs, Tao not caring his trousers were shredded in the process as he whirled around, grabbing what was _his_ with his tentacles.

He could see it coming, small and round, and while the tentacle-instincts demanded he use them to knock it out the way, Tao dodged instead, gasping as he fought against the tentacle-instincts, grunting as his back slammed into the alley wall - because as good as his eyes were and how well the tentacles reacted to his thoughts, they still didn't quite react perfectly to what he wanted, and he did _not_ want to leave something as important as his comrades' lives to a 'it _should_ work'.

The projectile passed them harmlessly and Tao heard it hit something with a hollow 'clang', the sound sharp and clear over the downpouring rain.

Tao's headache exploded –because if that had hit, if that had hurt them, and so many other shrieking thoughts- and all he could see was where the agent had to be; he roared, letting go of what was _his_-

Except someone threw their arms around his chest and Tao hissed, struggling to escape their grasp, wanting to tear after the agent, wanting to make sure he was never a _threat_ again to-

He was yanked back and Tao slammed into the slick ground, the air whooshing out of his lungs when he hit it, his tentacles not fast enough to catch him. As soon as he hit the ground, the world snapped back into focus and Tao could hear M-21 yelling something over the rain.

"-ber 1! Calm down! You can't-" And that was what made Tao start beating down the tentacle-instincts again - he shouldn't be the one being told to keep calm (especially by M-21, who had the worst and quickest temper out of them all) when he was supposed to be the leader; he didn't just have his own life to think about, but all of the RK-5's lives depended on him keeping a cool head. The instincts did _not_ want to be silenced, screaming louder the more he tried to supress them, that Takeo and M-21 would be _hurt_ if he didn't do something quickly, but now that Tao was aware what they were doing and not allowing them to control him, he was able to shove them away bit by bit.

Tao nodded to M-21 as he picked himself up when he was finished, his tentacles splaying out wider than usual, in case he needed to lunge out of the way again.

He could see Takeo was about two seconds from chasing the agent – but if the agent kept to ground level, there was far too big a chance that civilians could be caught in the crossfire and hurt. "Number 2," he said around the annoying press of his fangs, gesturing to him, "wait."

Takeo halted, and Tao let out a breath, pushing away the tentacle-instincts that still wanted him to go after the agent; it wasn't good to split up in an unknown situation (except that was what usually happened, but in an _ideal_ situation, they wouldn't be), and that was why M-21 had grabbed him in the first place.

Tao moved to the wall for extra cover, his tentacles picking up his pocket computer at the same time and handing it to him. He wiped the screen, trying to get a clearer view, but it was useless when raindrops splashed down faster than he could get rid of them.

The agent was nowhere to be found on the security cameras. Tao widened his search, trying to find that distinctive jacket – and found it, getting flattened by cars, which could be a good thing, because if the agent had attacked them while they were all distracted… Why hadn't he though? Unless the agent was alone? Was that why the agent had tried to pick him off while he was separated from Takeo and M-21 two days ago?

"He changed clothes," Tao told Takeo and M-21, still trying to find him, but if they only really had his hair colour to go by… The streets were a mass of umbrellas now, hiding everyone from view.

"Dammit, he'd been waiting for the rain," Tao realised, keeping his pocket computer out, just in case. It made the perfect cover when everyone used umbrellas for even the tiniest drizzle – it was the people who _didn't_ use an umbrella that stood out.

"It wasn't just to hide himself," Takeo said as he stared at the dumpster to the left of them.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Tao asked, glancing at it above his screen.

"Whatever he used, it's been washed away."

Tao blinked, understanding what Takeo was saying and then pulled up a few logs, working out the trajectory of the throw (he winced when he saw himself lose control in the corner of the shot). When he looked at where the projectile should have landed, he couldn't see anything. Tao carefully picked his way over to it – or, he would have, if Takeo hadn't grabbed his arm, keeping him in place.

"Number 2?" Tao said, looking back at him.

"You aren't wearing any shoes," Takeo said, nodding down to his tentacles.

Tao looked at him incredulously. Why was he bringing that up now? "Unless Boss can make them for tentacles –and they can turn into shoes- yeah?" Where _were_ his shoes anyway? He heard M-21 start walking around the alley.

"Tao," Takeo said, still not letting him go, "there could be poison on the ground and you're essentially barefoot."

"…Ah, right." Tao winced. He had been too distracted lately, and having tentacle-instincts was no excuse for that. Not when it could get them killed. "Over by the dumpster," he directed Takeo, moving back, "there should be a dent." Even the low-level agents would be able to do that. Tao could feel his tentacle-instincts rising again at the possibility of Takeo getting hurt by the poison, but he shoved them away. Takeo was wearing shoes and he'd be careful.

Takeo crouched over the spot, keeping his hair off the ground as he stared around at the ground, but he eventually stood up, shaking his head.

Tao wiped his hair away from his eyes, sighing. If Takeo couldn't see it, no-one else would be able to. "We should go back," he said. When they were sure the agent wasn't following them again, of course.

Tao quirked a small grin at Takeo and M-21 when they came back to his side. After making sure the agent hadn't come back, Tao started transforming his tentacles – he stopped with a weak chuckle when he realised he'd forgotten one very important detail. "I'm…going to have to start bringing Miss Seira's kilt with me everywhere, huh?" Or buy new skirts, because Miss Seira was going to eventually want it back and even if she didn't, he would still be in trouble when it needed washed.

M-21 sighed and shook his head. "How?"

Tao shrugged, mulling it over. "Backpack?" Hm. That would look a little weird. "Suitcase?" That would look better; it would match his suit.

Takeo snorted.

Okay, back at the task at hand: he had the possibility of being caught as a tentacle monster in the city streets, or being caught streaking in the city streets. Of the two options, Tao knew which one he preferred.

And Takeo and M-21 were taking off their suit jackets. Heh. Yeah, that would work as a temporary solution.

Tao turned his attention to changing his tentacles back into his regular legs but he frowned when he felt a resistance in his mind. He knew what to do to turn his legs back, but it was like trying to grab sunlight – he could feel it, it was familiar to him, but he didn't actually have anything in his hands when he closed them.

"Tao?" Takeo said when nothing happened for a few seconds.

He looked at them, his stomach churning. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before he said, "I can't change my legs back."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary**: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.

Contains tentacles.

Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a _lot_ more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.

Set post-season 4, and before season 5.

Written for tentaclebigbang Yeeeep. The link to the art post is in my profile!

Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! *hearts*

I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there _really is_ an unholy amount of crack in this fic.

Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD

* * *

**************Adjust**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Takeo and M-21's eyes went wide.

"What-?"

There wasn't any point repeating himself – they knew exactly what he'd said. Tao took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Right, I'm going to try that again," he told them, squaring his shoulders.

Tao closed his eyes, ignored the worsening rain, and shoved all his other thoughts and worries out his mind, especially the ones that wondered what would happen if he didn't get his regular legs back and his instincts continued to escalate. He cleared his mind and threw his full concentration on visualising his legs, the ones that had bones, toes, nails, and wasn't a smooth slide of even muscle from base to tip, because the words were 'hip' to 'toes' for his regular legs. He pictured that he was more tanned around his ankles compared to the rest of his legs. He mapped every single scar he'd accumulated on them over the years that his body hadn't quite managed to fully heal, even with his advanced regeneration. He remembered what it felt like to run at full tilt on two legs; using a foot to control a computer with further precision; wiggling his toes.

He could feel a change, a tap at his attention, but he ruthlessly ignored it. That wasn't important. He wasn't finished yet.

Tao could practically feel the burn in his legs the times when he remembered a fight that had gone on for too long and he'd still had to push himself. He remembered when his legs had been slick with sweat in the jungles of Namibia, Peru, and a dozen other places, constantly being bitten by mosquitoes and other bugs.

Something was pressed into his hands. Tao blinked, and found himself leaning on Takeo, M-21's jacket in his hands. And he had his regular legs back. Good.

"Thanks," he told them, straightening himself enough to tie it around his waist. He tied Takeo's on afterwards, covering what M-21's jacket couldn't. Changing his legs back had taken more energy than he realised, and Tao leaned on M-21 once he was done, waiting for the weakness to fade.

"Number 1!"

"Heh," Tao said, seeing Miss Seira and Regis drop down from the roof above them. "Number 5, Number 3, good to see you." He gave them a tired little wave.

"Are you all right?" Regis demanded, before his gaze turned south - and then quickly went elsewhere.

Tao glanced down to make sure he was still covered, and yep, still covered. "No-one's hurt," he reassured them with a grin. "I'm _hungry_ -I'm blaming that on the tentacles- and-"

"Tao's instincts are getting worse," M-21 cut in, handing him his shoes.

"I was just about to say that," Tao said wryly, nudging him. M-21 didn't look convinced. Why did people find it hard to believe him sometimes? Really. He didn't joke about everything _all_ the time. He started to put his shoes back on, grimacing at how drenched they were. It was going to feel _really_ nice walking home in them, but it was better than being barefoot.

"What?" Regis frowned, and Miss Seira watched him carefully.

"Haha, it's-" Well, no, it wasn't nothing, not when the tentacle-instincts had overwhelmed him that badly and could have caused any one of their deaths. And that was before they got to him nearly being trapped in tentacle form. "True?" He shook his head when Regis opened his mouth, making ushering motions with his hands. "No standing around; we're too much of a target that way." And with _this_ amount of people from the household in one place, Tao wasn't sure how strong the surge of instincts would be if they were attacked just then, and he didn't want to know either. But this way, they also had more chance of seeing or sensing the agent if he came back.

Regis made a grumbling noise as he started moving while Miss Seira dipped her head in response.

They wandered around for thirty minutes before they thought about actually returning home and while the rain annoyed him, Tao was glad it made his jacket-skirt a little less obvious. Especially when he had to keep adjusting it when it started dragging down with the weight of the rain. They kept any conversation to a minimum, only engaging enough to tell Miss Seira and Regis what had happened.

None of them felt the agent's presence, but Tao couldn't help but double-check his pocket computer every so often. The tentacle-instincts were still there, making him further on edge, but the instincts were more manageable, probably because the threat wasn't as immediate as before.

"Hey, Boss?" Tao called out once they were home. "You around? Can you someone get us, uh, twelve towels?" That should be enough to cover them all; Takeo's hair was going to need three by itself seeing how much water was already streaming down onto the floor without any wringing. Same for Miss Seira.

"I have seven," was Boss' dry response, as he walked into the entranceway, fluffy pink towels in hand. He frowned as soon as he saw Tao's jacket-skirt.

"We had a run-in with the agent," Tao explained, reaching for the towels. As he handed them back, giving two each to Takeo and Miss Seira, Tao told Boss, "But he got away. My instincts…" Tao pursed his lips, putting the towel around his neck. "They don't just want to hug; they're protective too, with a side order of possessive." He heard the others stop moving behind him. "As soon as I saw the agent as a threat to Takeo and M-21, it was like a switch got tripped in my brain." He sighed, picking at the corner of the towel. "All I wanted was the agent _dead_." Not that that was anything new, but in the DA-5, killing people was the mission, making sure the numbers all balanced out, not _wanting_ someone dead.

Boss studied him for a second, worry in his eyes. "But you are all right?"

Tao nodded, giving him a small smile. "Yeah."

"Good." Boss hummed, his gaze going distant for a second. "I'd like to double-check your DNA."

"Heh. You got it, Boss." If they could catch any more surprises before they cropped up, that would be nice.

After giving him a brief smile, Boss turned, heading towards the living room door, but then he paused. "Ah," he said, "your new bed is ready; it's in the room to the left of your room, Tao – there wasn't enough space in your own for it."

Tao swung his leg back and bumped Takeo in the shin, knowing exactly what he was thinking. And damn, after what had happened over the course of the day, Tao had completely forgotten about their sleeping arrangements for the night. He heard Takeo huff in response.

"Make sure you don't leave a mess," Boss added as he started moving towards the living room door again. Tao wasn't sure if he meant the entranceway or the room, but knowing Boss, the answer was probably 'both'.

"Sure, Boss!" Tao said, saluting as Boss left the living room. As soon as he closed the door, Tao turned around to face the others, not surprised to see their worried expressions.

"I'm fine, really!" he assured them, resting his hands on his towel. "The only instincts I've got right now are my legs wanting to be tentacles again." Compared to the possessiveness and losing control, that was _definitely_ the better option. And the instincts weren't that strong at that moment either.

The others stared at him for a couple of seconds before they started to dry their hair and Tao did the same.

As soon as he wasn't dripping all over the place, Tao slipped on a pair of slippers and headed straight for the kitchen.

"You aren't going downstairs first?" M-21 asked behind him, and Tao could hear a thread of concern there.

"I did say I was hungry. I can – well, no, I won't eat on the way," Tao corrected himself as he opened the fridge and tried to find anything to snack on. There was way too big a chance he'd leave a trail of crumbs behind him if he did that.

Tao found the dasik Boss had made the day before. "Want one?" he asked Regis as he approached him, holding the plate out.

Regis shook his head.

"Heh, all right." Tao grabbed a couple more and practically ate a bunch of them all in one bite. That should stave off the hunger until dinner.

"Are you going downstairs now?" Regis asked after Tao had put the plate back in the fridge and he nodded, putting a hand on Regis' shoulder. Tao blinked, realising what Regis was really asking and then looked down, a grin snapping into place.

"Why, Number 3," he said, his eyes wide, "are you _escorting_ me there?"

Regis twitched at the use of his codename, before he 'hmph'ed, looking away haughtily. "You need one, don't you?"

"I didn't know you _cared_," Tao exclaimed, throwing his arms around his shoulders.

"T-Tao!"

Tao snickered and straightened so he no longer hung off Regis. "We'll be back in a couple of minutes," he told the others over his shoulder.

"Or we'll meet in your room," Takeo said, his voice slightly muffled by his towel.

"Oh, yeah," Tao said, nodding. They had a clearer idea of what the agent looked like now, so searching for him would be easier.

It didn't take Tao and Regis long to get to the Boss' lab, and Boss was already in his labcoat, the machine in front of him humming. There was a tray to the left of him, and Tao could see a couple of familiar instruments there.

"Ah, good, just in time," Boss said, nodding to them as he picked up the syringe. They went through the usual motions and Tao watched the Boss as he started to work.

They only had to wait a few minutes before one of Boss' machines beeped. Boss took one look at it and nodded. "The good news is that your DNA hasn't changed drastically since the last time I took a sample, though that does suggest that you have had that instincts all along, but nothing had happened to trigger it before now…"

"So, me transforming didn't make the instincts worse or anything?" Tao asked, though it was too late for that question, seeing how many times he had already transformed his legs while they had been sparring.

"No," Boss said, shaking his head. "There would have been a far greater difference if that were the case."

"Ah, gotcha." That was good to hear.

When he and Regis were making their way to his room, Tao frowned, wanting to throw his arm around Regis' shoulders instead of having his hand on Regis' upper arm. That wasn't the only thing the instincts were wanting either.

"Is there something wrong?" Regis asked, an eyebrow raised, and Tao sighed. His grip on Regis' arm had been getting a little restless.

"The instincts are being annoying again," he said.

Regis frowned.

"Oh, not like that!" Tao said quickly, realising how Regis could take his comment. "It's not as bad as what just happened, but the tentacles want out again." And they'd been out enough already, in Tao's opinion.

"Hm." Regis didn't say anything for a few seconds. "The homeowner said changing forms wouldn't affect the strength of the instincts."

"Oh, yeah, he did, didn't he?" After all that time spent trying to _not_ let his tentacles take over, it was a little hard to do the switch of accepting he could do it, if only for a little bit of relief. Tao beamed at Regis, transforming his legs and enveloped him in a hug that included his tentacles, breathing in deeply. "Number 3, you're the best!"

Regis flailed. "Ack, all I did was remind you-!"

The headache faded like it hadn't existed, and the sense of _home_ settled in Tao's head. What was that phrase? 'Home is where the heart is'? According to his tentacles, that wasn't just a phrase; it was a fact of life, written in the blood and instincts.

After Tao's tentacles handed his slippers back to him, they made the rest of the way to his bedroom. Tao eyed the door to the left of his room, curious to see what exactly the Boss had made, but they'd be finding out soon enough, so he could wait until then.

Tao ducked into his room and changed; he sighed as he peeled himself out his wet clothes and put on dry ones - damn, they felt nice after all that time being wet. And he really had gone soft, ha. After checking his computer was still on, Tao left his room again, carrying his wet clothes. When he saw Regis was still there, Tao grinned at him. He heard someone else coming down the corridor, and when Tao turned to see who it was, he snickered when he saw Takeo. Tao waved at him with his tentacles, since that was where Takeo's attention was.

"Need help with your hair?" he asked, and Takeo looked up to shoot him a dry look. Takeo's hair wasn't _quite_ a tangled mess, but it was at least very obviously unkempt after being towel-dried.

"What did he say?" Takeo said.

"My DNA hasn't changed that much from last time," Tao told him, still eyeing his hair. "It was just that nothing had happened before to trigger them that badly." Except when he'd woken up that morning, and that hadn't been as extreme in comparison.

Takeo nodded slowly, but then he huffed when he saw where Tao was still staring. "I can sort it out later," he said, shaking his head.

Tao sighed dramatically. "Do you want the Boss to see you like that at dinner?" Who knew what the Boss would do if he saw it - maybe decide to do Takeo's hair himself, or maybe cut it off?

Tao recognised the conflicted look that flickered across Takeo's face and pushed harder, knowing it wouldn't take much more before Takeo agreed. "M-21 and Miss Seira only just came up too, right?" M-21 should have finished before them, but if he had started cleaning the entranceway first… Tao waited enough for Takeo to nod. "So we've got a bit of time before they're finished, and they still need-" Well, Takeo still needed to change too, so that argument was moot - and he still needed to take his own clothes to the laundry room too.

Regis sighed and held his hands out towards Tao. "I'll make sure your clothes go into the laundry."

Or they could do that. "Haha, problem solved!" Tao grinned at Regis.

"Regis-!"

Regis' tiny smirk wasn't directed at Takeo _at all_ as Tao dumped his clothes into Regis' waiting arms; Tao grabbed Takeo straight after and started tugging him towards Takeo's bedroom.

"C'mon, we have to be quick!" he urged, and while Takeo made a grumbling sound, he didn't resist him at all, like Tao knew he would.

When they were in his bedroom, Tao sought out Takeo's hairbrushes while Takeo changed behind him. Tao brandished the brushes in victory when he found them.

"It's a shame I can't do any experimenting," Tao commented when Takeo was sitting in his chair.

"I'm glad you can't," was all Takeo said when Tao handed him his brush.

Tao shook his head, not caring Takeo couldn't see it. He suddenly wished Takeo kept more brushes, because Tao knew his tentacles weren't as dexterous as his fingers, but he was sure he could still control them well enough to be able to brush different sections of Takeo's hair at the same time.

"Really," Tao said, looping a pair of tentacles around Takeo's ankles, "you should let me some time. It'd be fun!"

"For you," Takeo replied dryly as he started to brush his hair, "I have no idea what you'd do with it."

Tao sighed as he started gently tugging at Takeo's tangles, his tentacles beginning to separate out other areas. "You'd be able to undo whatever I did. C'mon, don't you trust me?"

"With my life," Takeo said, and Tao grinned. "Not with my hair."

Tao's grin turned wry as he continued brushing. "Your hair's more important than your life?" That was a little backwards.

Takeo snorted and shook his head. It wasn't hard enough to pull his hair out of Tao's grasp, but Tao loosened his grip anyway, just in case. "It's _because_ my hair is unimportant I don't trust you with it."

That made a little more sense – his hair would grow back if it was cut; his life couldn't.

They were quiet for a few seconds until Takeo tried to peer at him over his shoulder. "Tao…what are you doing?"

"Hm?" He looked down at his hands and the mass of Takeo's hair left to sort out. That was normal. He glanced at what the rest of his tentacles were doing. Oh, huh. "Tentacle-combing your hair apparently," he informed Takeo. As much as tentacles the width of his wrist could manage, anyway – one tentacle bunched a section of Takeo's hair, a second tentacle slowly went down the centre of it until it reached the bottom, and then they started all over again.

Which gave him an idea. "Think of all-"

"No."

Tao sighed. "Ah, fine." The rest of the time passed in relative silence as Tao kept track of what his tentacles were doing, a number of possibilities forming in his mind of what he could do with Takeo's hair later, if he changed his mind. In preparation, he started testing out if he could control more of his tentacles to brush Takeo's hair; he could perfectly control two pairs by the time they finished.

Once they were done –and Takeo had double-checked that Tao had, in fact, not done anything else to his hair- they left for Tao's room. M-21 was standing outside his door and Tao waved to him. He got a nod in response and Tao walked in first, curling a tentacle around M-21's wrist as he passed him.

His computer had switched back to screensaver mode and after Tao had settled into his chair, he put in the password and started to bring up the programs he needed again. Hopefully having other people around would help him keep his mind on track better.

They had a clearer idea what the agent looked like now, and they knew where he'd been and when, so Tao hacked into the same security recordings as before and started to scan them, trying to find the agent.

"There," Takeo said, pointing at one particular window, and Tao grinned.

"Human binoculars," Tao said fondly, the tentacle around Takeo's ankle tightening briefly.

Takeo gave his shoulder a light shove. "Get on with it."

"All right, all right," Tao said, chuckling as he turned his attention back to the computer screens. Now that he had the exact timeframe and place, finding the other cameras would be easy.

Once he'd found the camera angles he wanted Tao hummed, remembering something else he needed to do and started to hack into a couple of other places.

"You need this many cameras?" M-21 asked.

Tao shook his head. "They're for something else."

"What – ah."

He froze the recording. "Yep." Indistinct and blurry from the rain, their own three forms were visible in the corner of the screen, mostly hidden by the shadows of the alley.

Tao noticed something and he frowned, leaning towards the screen, squinting. "That's weird…" Was he seeing that right?

"What is?" Regis asked, and Tao absentmindedly waved behind himself, hearing his bedroom door shut.

"You shouldn't be able to see my bands that clearly," Tao murmured as he lifted a free one to look at it closely, feeling a couple others curl around Miss Seira and Regis.

…Oh, that didn't look good. When Tao had first seen his tentacles, each band had been less than the width of a finger; now, they were bigger than three, his skin tone nearly disappearing between black and white. He could feel a difference between his skin and the bands too, the bands sleeker, giving less. He pressed a little harder and felt little indentations that, when he looked at them closely, resembled scales.

Tao had a sinking feeling he knew what would happen if the bands completely took over the tentacles.

"They're growing," Miss Seira said, and Tao nodded.

"Definitely need to find the agent and his poisons," Tao said, letting go of the tentacle and put his full attention back to what he had been doing.

There was no disagreement to his statement, and they started trying to find the agent together.

They weren't able to find him, however, no matter how much they widened their search, the others making sure his attention didn't wander for too long (the fact they kept his tentacles occupied had probably helped too), and when Miss Seira left to cook dinner, Tao started deleting all the recordings of him in tentacle form.

It didn't take long to find all the cameras that had the incriminating evidence and get rid of it, and once they were done, they left for dinner.

xOx

Tao whistled when he saw the bed. "Damn," he said, wandering further into the room, trying to see it at all angles, "the Boss outdid himself." Then again, this was _Boss_ they were talking about – that was to be expected of him.

Tao wasn't sure where Boss had gotten a hold of solid mahogany wood that size (for all Tao knew, he'd gotten it especially for them; with the amount of money and connections the Boss had, Tao wouldn't be surprised if that was true) but Tao was pretty glad of how spacious Boss' rooms were because even if he _had_ tried to make space for the bed in his own room, he was sure it wouldn't have fit. In a completely empty room, the bed still practically stretched wall to wall, dominating the room with its presence. Yeah, they weren't going to have any problems fitting in the bed together, tentacles or no.

Tao blinked and then turned around, counting heads. "Hey, we're missing someone." Everyone should have finished changing into their nightclothes already… Oh, of course. Tao tapped his cheek. "I'll go get _him_," he said.

"I'll escort you this time," Miss Seira said, and Tao beamed.

"Awesome." He turned to the others. "We'll be back soon; I expect you all to be ready when we start figuring out sleeping arrangements."

Tao was just able to stop himself laughing at the sight of M-21 and Regis eyeing each other, Takeo sighing between them, until the door closed behind him and Miss Seira.

"You already know where everyone is going to sleep," Miss Seira stated, while Tao howled on her shoulder.

"Yep," he said, once he'd gotten his laughter under control. Knowing the dynamics of the house made it easy to figure out. "Not sure where _he's_ going to sleep though," Tao admitted when they started making their way downstairs. Tao could say 'wherever he wanted', but a lot of the time, it seemed like he actually went along with what everyone else wanted first. "If he doesn't have any preference, I'm thinking of him sleeping between me an' Takeo – I think Regis would have a heart attack if they slept next to each other." Or not sleep at all because he was fanboying so hard.

Miss Seira nodded. "That would be for the best."

Tao grinned and then blinked, seeing _him_ coming up the corridor, dressed in white nightclothes. "We were just coming to get you! You ready?"

"Yes," _he_ said, nodding, and Tao let out a 'whoop!', one tentacle snaking its way towards his hand. Tao smiled when they made contact, the tentacle-instincts pleased at the touch, but not wanting anything more. That _was_ reassuring after everything that had happened.

"Okay, we need to get back soon as possible, in case '21 and Regis are trying to out-snark each other again," Tao said, turning back to go in the direction he and Miss Seira had come from, "and it would just be a cruel and unusual punishment to leave Takeo in the centre of it all."

He didn't get a response to that as they went back, but he didn't fully expect or need a verbal one from those two.

They opened the door to the scene Tao expected: M-21 and Regis glaring at each other, their teeth practically bared, with Takeo leaning back on the bedframe, his face resting in his palm.

"We have returned!" Tao declared, and both M-21 and Regis snapped to him, like Tao had hoped they would. Good; they hadn't gotten too into it, then.

"Don't worry," Tao said before either of them could get a word out as he walked into the room, "I know where everyone's going."

M-21 and Regis both made a strangled noise at that, apprehension replacing their stubborn expressions.

"What, don't you trust me either?" Tao asked, slumping his shoulders.

"_No_."

"Not with something you could turn into a joke!"

Tao turned to Miss Seira, completely hangdog. "You trust me, don't you, Miss Seira?"

Miss Seira didn't say anything for a few seconds. "For this," she said, "I trust you."

"Okay, _you're_ the best now," Tao declared, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "Sorry, Regis, you've already been replaced."

Regis sniffed. "It doesn't bother me."

"Tao," Takeo said, rubbing his forehead with a palm, "what are the sleeping arrangements?"

"All right, okay, back to business," Tao said, nodding, and started to tick off his fingers. "Miss Seira's on the outside, Regis is next to her, I'm in the middle, Takeo's next to me, and M-21's on the outside." Because Regis wouldn't stop arguing if anyone else slept next to Miss Seira, and maintaining the biggest space as possible between M-21 and Regis was just ensuring everyone slept.

Tao turned to _him_ while Takeo, M-21 and Regis looked at who they would be sleeping next to. "Is there anywhere in particular you want to sleep?"

_He_ was silent for a while, looking around at everyone. "No, there isn't," he said, shaking his head.

"All right," Tao said, nodding. "Do you want to sleep between me and Takeo?"

He glanced at Tao before he turned his gaze towards Takeo.

Takeo noticed straight away, and his eyebrows shot up when he saw who was staring at him. "Uh, I'm all right with that," Takeo said.

_He_ nodded once. "That's fine."

Tao beamed at them both. "Great!"

They climbed into bed after that and it took a bit of shuffling before everyone settled. It was weird hearing so many other people around him, feeling their body heat, after he'd gotten used to sleeping by himself, but when Tao reached out with his tentacles, it didn't matter. Contentment swept through his mind when he made contact with everyone and Tao tumbled to sleep almost instantly.

xOx

A breeze ghosted over Tao's tentacles and he instinctively tightened them, double-checking everyone was still there. They were – no, that wasn't quite right.

Tao slowly opened his eyes and he stared up at the spill of light across the ceiling, seeing Boss' familiar silhouette.

"Hey, Boss," Tao whispered, easing himself up onto his elbows. Takeo and M-21 shifted in their sleep and Tao absentmindedly stroked them with a tentacle until they settled down again.

"Go back to sleep," Boss murmured.

"I will," Tao said, already drifting in the haze of not having the persistent buzzing in his mind. But there was something missing. "Hey, Boss…?"

Boss had already started walking towards them. "Mm. Of course." One of Tao's tentacles disentangled itself from underneath the blanket, reaching for Boss, and Tao's breath stuttered when he made contact with Boss' palm, coiling the tip around his wrist.

Something eased in Tao's mind, feeling complete and whole now that every member of his family was in his grasp.

"Now go to sleep," chased Tao as he dozed off again.

xOx

Tao woke up bit by bit, feeling utterly relaxed. The scent of musty old books hung in the air, reminding Tao of one of the rooms he'd found while installing the cameras around the house that had been filled with Boss' books - that had to be _his_ scent.

Tao lay there for a minute, not wanting to do anything, just listening to everyone else breathe, but he shook his head; now wasn't the time to laze about, so Tao gently slid his tentacles away from everyone, trying to not disturb them, bracing for the headache as he did so.

It didn't come.

Huh? Tao tilted his head, waiting for it to hit, but it still didn't. That was…weird. Why didn't it – was it because he'd slept with everyone within touching distance? Apart from Boss, and that reminded him…

Tao eased himself out of bed, making sure everyone was covered afterwards and then snuck out the room. Boss had been working non-stop since Tao had gained his tentacles, not to mention he'd also made their bed for all of them, and knowing Boss, he probably hadn't slept in all that time.

Tao ducked into the kitchen for a second, grabbing the rest of the dasik from the fridge. After he'd finished them and washed the plate, he looked at the spare slippers in the entranceway. Well, if he was feeling this good, maybe his instincts wouldn't be too insistent when he changed his legs back?

Tao let out a long breath and tried to transform his tentacles back – it was the smoothest transition he'd had, and faster too. He revelled in having toes again as he leaned against the counter, grinning down at his legs.

When he pushed himself away from the counter, he didn't feel the instincts thrum at him at all, or as he walked over to the entranceway either. He chuckled, relief filling him as he put on the slippers and then walked down to Boss' lab.

"Boss?" he called out when he arrived. The lights were on, but that was normal since Boss was always testing or making something.

"I thought I told you to go to sleep," Boss said from one of his machines, watching lines of text scrolling up the monitor in front of him.

"That was a couple of hours ago," Tao told him, shaking his head. Well, that answered his question of if the Boss had slept or not.

Tao saw Boss start a little, before he frowned. "Was it?"

"Yep," Tao said, walking up to him, and Boss sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You're human; humans need sleep, remember?" How human Boss was was up for debate though, but he said he was human, and he didn't lie about anything.

Boss looked at him wryly over the rim of his glasses.

"And if you don't, you're more likely to make mistakes," Tao continued, stopping beside him. And that was something Boss wouldn't allow.

"You're being rather adamant about this," Boss said, an eyebrow cocked.

He shrugged, spreading his hands wide. "I'm not the only person who needs your help – the school needs you too." He didn't have to mention _him_; that was a given.

Boss blinked at him, and then sighed again, taking off his glasses. "Ah, I have a board meeting in a few hours."

"Then you definitely need your sleep!" Tao said, making shooing motions.

Boss smiled at his antics, before the lab door hissed open, and Tao turned to see the rest of the RK-5 stumble in, _him_ at the back as well.

"Tao-"

"You could-"

"I'm all right!" he told them, arms raised to placate them.

Tao was sent some _very_ dry looks.

"No, I am!" he said. "The headache's gone and I can think clearly again. I just came down to make sure Boss gets some sleep."

They turned to look at the Boss, who shook his head. "Very well," he said, a small, wry smile on his face. "I'll rest now."

"Great!"

They left the lab together once Boss had finished checking on a few results.

"Sooo," Tao said to the others once the Boss had left them to go to his room, "breakfast?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary**: When Tao gains consciousness after being attacked by an agent, he finds that his body has changed in one very obvious way.

Contains violence that is a little more descriptive than canon. Tentacles.

Aaaand for the more lighthearted 'contains' section: more xeno than Side Effect and Pace the Night put together. Tao's thought processes. Crackish premises taken seriously. Way too much crack in general. But this also a _lot_ more serious than Side Effect and Pace the Night.

Set post-season 4, and before season 5.

Written for tentaclebigbang Yeeeep. The link to the art post is in my profile!

Thanks to Kaelin, Kai and Dogmatix for their help while I was writing this! :D And thanks to Kaelin for also beta-reading this! *hearts*

I feel like I have to say something about the unholy amount of crack in this fic, because there _really is_ an unholy amount of crack in this fic.

Been working on this since January, ahahaha. XDD

* * *

**************Adjust**

By Dark Ice Dragon

* * *

Tao leaned back on his chair while Takeo and M-21 did the dishes after breakfast and looked down at Miss Seira's kilt, humming thoughtfully. It had been a couple of days since he'd started wearing it and it was due for a wash.

"What are you thinking about?" Takeo asked, not even looking over his shoulder.

"Skirt shopping," he said truthfully. "Wanna come?" It wouldn't work if he transformed his legs while he wasn't wearing one, but it was faster than ordering a kilt online. There wasn't much else they could do until the agent revealed himself again.

"Someone's going to have to," M-21 said dryly.

"Hey, it's fine if you don't want to," Tao said, shaking his head. "I can ask Miss Seira instead." She'd know better about sizes and what should fit him.

"I think she and Regis are doing homework right now," Takeo said, looking towards the living room door.

"Ah. Hm, wouldn't want to disturb them while they did that." Not after they'd been busy with the agent business over the last couple of days. "Any volunteers?" he asked, tilting a grin at both of them.

Takeo and M-21 shared a look and then sighed.

"I take it that means both of you?"

"…Yes."

xOx

Tao flicked through the clothes rack, dismissing a lot of the skirts at a glance. Too shiny, too thin, too light - ooh, that one looked _perfect_. Tao pulled it out, turning to Takeo and M-21, holding it up. "What do you think?"

"Are you buying for your girlfriend?" the shop assistant asked, the one that had been hovering around them since they'd entered the women's section.

"Yep," Tao lied blithely. He heard M-21 cough suddenly. "She likes black, but doesn't really have a preference."

She eyed the skirt critically for a second. "Is it for a party?"

He shook his head. "No, she doesn't go to them."

"We do have another section with skirts; if you'll follow me," she said, and Tao did, hearing Takeo and M-21 trail after them.

xOx

Bags filled with skirts (a couple for him; most were skirts that Tao thought Miss Seira might like), Tao, Takeo and M-21 started to make their way home again.

"That went better than expected," Tao said, swinging his bags slightly.

M-21 snorted, but then he halted, his expression confused.

"What's wrong?" Tao asked, both him and Takeo stopping next to him.

He studied Tao, his expression still the same. "You aren't…" M-21 turned his face away, and Tao could see him sniffing covertly at the air.

Tao raised his eyebrows, remembering the last time M-21 had done that. "It'll just be one of the students." If M-21 didn't think he was scent-marking everything at that moment, that had to be what M-21 was smelling.

M-21 shook his head. "It's too faint for that."

Tao wanted to guess it was someone from the school who had passed through a while ago, but when M-21 took a few steps away from them and then looked _up_, Tao knew what M-21 was about to say.

"The students don't stand on rooftops," M-21 said grimly.

That meant it could only be the agent M-21 was smelling.

The agent had been to the _school_; if he had kidnapped any of the children… Tao quickly quashed his flare of anger. So much for his instincts being under control. Dammit. On the one hand, surge wasn't as strong as before, but that could be because they didn't _know_ yet.

"Guess it's a good thing we went shopping," Tao said as M-21 started slowly leading the way. Both because they'd found the agent's trail because of it, and if there was going to be a fight, he had skirts handy in case his tentacles shredded his trousers again.

Tao texted Miss Seira and Regis, informing them what they'd found. A few seconds later, he got a reply from Regis, telling him _he_ had just left with the children to go the PC Bang and Tao let out a relieved breath. That meant the children were all right; he would keep them safe. If other children had been kidnapped though… At the end of the text, Regis asked if they needed assistance and Tao hummed, watching M-21's back. Tao sent back 'No' – they didn't know if the trail would actually lead them anywhere and they might draw attention if they moved in too large a group. Once he'd sent the text, Tao briefly considered telling _him_, but eventually slipped the phone back into his pocket – if they told him what was happening, Tao had no doubt he would come straight over, and if there _was_ a fight… No, none of them wanted that.

They went up to the rooftops and started heading west. A couple of times, the wind shifted and M-21 lost the trail, but he was able to find again soon after.

They eventually found themselves on the outskirts of the city, at an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. There weren't any buildings near it, an empty space filled with litter all around it.

M-21 took one look at it and snorted.

Tao's own lips were twitching as he pulled out his pocket computer and set down his shopping bags. It was a bit nostalgic, seeing the life they'd had before they'd been adopted into the household.

"Number 4," Tao said, throwing M-21 an earpiece, "you're going in alone; Number 2 will cover you." Takeo and M-21 both nodded, Takeo pulling out his gun.

Tao sat down on the roof and started hacking into the security cameras of the surrounding areas, checking what they had seen as Takeo settled down next to him and M-21 made his way down.

There weren't any cameras that directly looked at the derelict warehouse, and Tao sighed, expanding his search to the closest buildings that did use security cameras, hoping the agent had been caught going into the area somewhere. If the agent had moved around via the rooftops though…

Tao hacked into one building's security system, and he pursed his lips, when he felt his attention start to slide already. Yeah, he wasn't going to let the instincts have their way this time. He shook his head and shoved them away, focusing on the task at hand.

"_There's no-one inside,_" M-21 murmured.

"Good." No kidnapped kids. "Still trying to find him. Number 2?"

"Nothing."

It was still too early to relax and Tao continued trying to find the agent.

"_I can see where he's been sleeping. There's at least two - shit!_" A crash.

Tao froze, straining his ears, trying to hear anything. "4?"

"_He's here._" A smash, and then Tao couldn't hear anything from M-21.

Dammit! "Number 2," Tao said, pushing himself faster to hack into the security systems, feeling the instincts start to drum at his skull. He couldn't go in with Takeo, as much as he wanted to - M-21 had been about to say there were at least two agents, and Tao didn't know if the second agent was in the warehouse or not. If they were, Takeo would definitely be able to help; if they weren't, that was why he was staying put.

"Got it." Takeo jumped over the edge of the rooftop, and between hacking into the systems, Tao kept glancing over the top of his pocket computer, trying to pinpoint where M-21 was, if he could see any movement inside. He couldn't, but if he could - _there_, he was finally in a building to the north's system.

He got a glimpse of Takeo speeding towards the warehouse on his screen, but Tao turned his attention away from that, scanning for broken windows, anything that could help him see inside.

Smoke obscured everything inside, the dirt caked onto the glass not helping at all, and Tao leaned forward, hoping he could see something, how the fight was going, if the second agent was there so he could warn Takeo.

Movement reflected on his screen.

Tao threw himself to the right, and whirled around, hearing his pocket computer clatter as it hit the roof.

There was a woman was above him, bronze scales rippling up her arms as she landed, cracking the rooftop and sending dust clouds up into the air. Tao didn't waste any time, unfurling his cable with a flick of his wrist, the tentacle-instincts already screaming at him, wanting to be used. He cautiously took a few steps forward – he didn't like having the edge of the rooftop so close to his back.

When the dust settled, Tao gawked for a brief second before he leaped back when the agent rushed at him. She no longer had legs, but she didn't have tentacles either – she had one thick _tail_ that started at the hips, and was probably about twice as long as his tentacles, covered in bronze scales. She was faster than Tao expected, the tail propelling her easily across the rooftop and Tao's stomach sank – he couldn't use either of the D drugs in case they killed him before he could do anything with the enhancement but-

"_Number 1?_"

Ah. "Found the other agent," he said tersely. She'd found him, but the difference didn't matter at that point. "Keep going."

"_Understood._"

Tao yanked the earpiece out and crushed it, to make sure he wouldn't be distracted. He leaped out of the way of her slash, not liking just how close it had been.

"Where did they find a piece of gorgon to use on you?" Tao asked, anchoring his cable around his arm as he waited to see what she would do next. It explained where the base of the poison had come from though; really, they should have _expected_ that.

He wasn't really expecting an answer, but if she did reply, it'd give him a couple more seconds of breathing room, and maybe give him a few hints of what he could use to his advantage.

"It doesn't matter," she said, her voice not as raspy or hissing like Tao had thought it would be. "You _will_ die soon."

It was unoriginal, but Tao couldn't call her out on it when she had already raised her arm, pointing her palm towards him. He tensed, waiting to see how he should react.

Tao had just enough time to see something whizzing out of her wrist and ducked.

"Heh," he said, "your poison didn't work the first time-" He would have said more, but she charged again. Tao flicked his cable down, feeling it burrow through the roof and he calculated where she would be, sending the cable there and he directed it upwards just as she passed.

When he had looped it around her tail, Tao realised he hadn't thought properly about what wrapping his cable around a tail _meant_, because the agent didn't stop at all, sliding over them.

Tao clenched his hand, electrifying the cable, and _now_ the agent stopped, howling.

At least he knew that worked on her.

Snarling, she crouched down low and Tao only understood what she was about to do when the section behind where his cable was rose up higher than the rest.

He hastily loosened the cable from his arm, but he wasn't fast enough – she snapped back, dragging his cable with her, tearing it up through the rooftop. Tao hissed when the cable was ripped from him; he could feel his sleeve was in tatters, blood trickling down his arm, but he ignored that, watching for what she would do next.

"Even if it didn't work on _you_," she said, sneering, "can you say the same of your teammates?"

Tao froze, the air caught in his throat as the tentacle-instincts _crashed_ into him.

"Maybe I'll drag you over when I'm done," she continued, advancing on him while Tao struggled to contain the instincts, his head buzzing, refusing to think about anything else, refusing to _let him move_, "let you see their corpses before I kill you."

Dammit, Tao knew what she was doing (the other agent must have told her what had happened before and how he'd reacted to a threat to Takeo and M-21), but the tentacle-instincts were drowning out the rational part of his brain, demanding he stop fighting and _go to their sides_.

Tao saw her tail speeding towards him, but it was far too late to dodge and Tao was only able to lift his arms at the last second, bracing himself for the blow.

It was like he'd been hit with a car, and Tao sucked in a breath as he flew through the air. The shock from the impact broke Tao's concentration for a second and when he crashed into the rooftop, his tentacles splayed out, trying their best to make him stop, but all they got was the skin scoured from them.

Tao shoved away the fact that the world was spinning, that he felt the familiar stabbing pain in his chest that said he had a couple of cracked ribs, because staying still on the ground in the middle of a fight would only get him killed.

It was easier to right himself with tentacles, even while he didn't know which way was up; he got up just in time, hearing a 'thunk' from where he'd just been, the tentacles near it flinching away.

He had to keep a tighter hold on his instincts; Tao wasn't sure he'd be able to survive another blow like that, one way or another.

"And you don't know my comrades," Tao said, forcing a grin on his face, even though every breath hurt, every word hummed in his chest. "They aren't easy to take down."

There was an explosion behind the agent, from the warehouse, and Tao's grin eased, turning more natural. "See?" The explosion could mean anything – the tentacle-instincts were shrieking that it was the end of the fight, but Tao quashed them before they could try to overwhelm him again. In the very least it was a sign – there was the familiar staccato of gunfire and Tao relaxed, the instincts slightly mollified, but not entirely – he still wasn't sure how M-21 was, but at least he knew Takeo was still alive. "That doesn't sound like they're dead," he drawled out, kicking the instincts back bit by bit with each second he stalled for.

"For how long?" she shot back, charging at him again.

He didn't bother with a retort as he lunged out the way – okay, the bonus of tentacles was it at least meant he was faster and he wasn't jostling his ribs so much with every step.

He dashed past her, keeping an eye on the agent's tail just in case. He caught sight of his cable and he tore towards it, a little wary of the hole that had been left when the agent had ripped it out.

The tentacles grabbed the cable as he went past without slowing down – and Tao's mind raced when he felt the rooftop shift slightly under him, the vibrations travelling up his tentacles. With enough weight on it and the weakness from the hole… The rooftop wouldn't collapse by itself, but with help…

Tao more sensed the projectile aimed for his head rather than heard or saw it and he snapped the cable around his arm as he whirled around and span his cable around the projectile and directing it back to her. It missed, but it felt good to have his cable back (especially now that he'd had a better look at the projectile – it was a thick spike the length of his hand, bronze as the agent's scales) and Tao clenched his hands, just double-checking his grip and how well he could move his arm. He had less mobility in his arm, but that wouldn't matter as much.

"You think that will save you?" the agent mocked as she charged again.

"It could," Tao said, grinning as he cracked the cable in the agent's direction. She flung herself to the side and Tao swung the cable around, wrapping it around the arm she'd hastily raised to block it. Before the cable had finished wrapping around her arm, Tao charged it.

He loosened his cable and yanked it back, in case she tried to repeat what she'd done before. Before she could recover, Tao snapped his cable down, burrowing it through the rooftop again. He tore through the supports, a little grateful the building was on the older side, making it easier to destroy.

The agent jerked back at that, and Tao quickly directed his cable up through the rooftop again – if she thought he was attacking her, then it was better if he played along so she didn't know what was going to happen next.

He missed, the agent no longer there when the cable surfaced, but he didn't mind that much, not when doing that was helping his plan along. He _did_ mind when the agent lifted her arm and shot another projectile at him though, and Tao dropped his cable again to dodge.

It whizzed by far too close for comfort, the stabbing pain in Tao's chest making it harder for him to move as easily.

Before Tao could properly recover, the agent charged and he hissed, lunging away from his cable. The rooftop didn't shift, or at least not enough for the agent to notice.

Tao ducked her slash and blocked her other swipe. He gritted his teeth as his tentacles started to writhe, not sure what they were trying to do, definitely not caring, and he stomped down on the impulse. He twisted his arm and grabbed her wrist – she snarled when he channelled his electricity through his hand.

She recovered far too fast and Tao was too slow to pull back when she lashed out with her other fist. The blow landed solidly and he flew through the air, crashing heavily into the rooftop.

This was not a habit he wanted to keep having, Tao thought in a daze, every single scrape throbbing, his head ringing.

But he'd landed on top of his cable and he sluggishly picked it up with his tentacles, glad he could still control his cable through them as he tried to right himself, sending it through the rooftop again.

He heard her scales scraping on the rooftop and Tao heaved a deep breath as he tried to turn around. There wasn't any time left – he directed his cable to rip apart the area where the agent was standing.

He felt the instant when the rooftop started to give way and he scrambled backwards as a rumble made itself known.

The agent paused for a second, eyeing him suspiciously and Tao used that moment of distraction to _yank_ the cable back up through the rooftop, making as much damage as he could.

It was enough, and between one blink and the next, the air was filled with crashing and billowing dust. Tao coughed as the dust invaded his lungs, scratching his throat, and he winced every time a cough wracked his chest. His eyes weren't that much better, the dust making his eyes water and blink too much.

Tao carefully straightened himself, his tentacles handing him his cable back. He slowly wound the cable around his arm, trying to avoid previous injuries, keeping his ears strained for movement, but he couldn't hear anything. It would be far too careless not to check though.

With his ears pricked, Tao approached the gaping hole, still not hearing anything. The dust didn't help either, and Tao waved a hand in front of his face, trying to see through it. After a few seconds, he finally could and he peered down the hole, stretching out his tentacles for extra balance, in case more of the rooftop gave way.

The agent was there, half-buried under the debris, not moving. Tao let out a small breath of relief, slumping his shoulders as he relaxed. Okay, now he had to –

A tumble of rocks against each other.

Tao snapped his attention down again and saw the agent lunge out from where she lay, her palm outstretched.

Tao snapped down his cable, but he couldn't concentrate properly, pain snarling at the sharp movement. He missed the projectile but managed to wrap the cable around her wrist.

He electrified the cable instantly, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge in time – it was aimed too low, too centred, he couldn't jump out the way, but if he could at least knock her out at the same time-!

Tao had been too distracted with the agent to pay attention to what his tentacles were doing until they reared up in front of him, like a group of cobras intending to strike.

His eyes widened when he realised what they were going to do, his electricity stuttering briefly before he continued. If it worked, then…

Tao's tentacles lashed out at the projectile, swatting it out the – the spike _shattered_, the fragments slicing a tentacle.

Tao had a second to wince, feeling his blood trail down from the wounds before he hissed, fire scorching up the tentacle.

What - _poison_.

He could feel it racing through his body, and he fell sideways, his elbow scraping the rooftop a second before he cracked his head on the rooftop when his tentacles crumpled underneath him.

He lay there, trying to see straight, hoping the world would stop spinning soon. The ringing in his ears was back and all Tao could do was wait for it to fade as he felt the poison course through his veins.

Tao gingerly turned over, in case the agent _still_ wasn't knocked out; he had to close his eyes at the sudden wave of vertigo, sucking in a breath.

His hearing came back slowly but Tao's eyes snapped open when he heard the rasp of scales on concrete. The agent had slithered up the pile of debris the rooftop caving in had caused, and Tao's tentacles barely responded to him, only listlessly twitching when he wanted them to _move_.

Dammit, his cable was nowhere in sight (probably on the floor below) and Tao gritted his teeth when she neared, her tail nudging his tentacles as she loomed over him. "As you pointed out," she said, glowering, "my poison didn't kill you the first time, but you won't survive my poison _and_ a crushed neck this time."

That was unfortunately true. Tao couldn't do anything as she crouched down; his tentacles were the only part of him that were listening to him, but all they wanted to do was futilely push against – no, they weren't even doing that, just trying to cover as much of her as possible and if they had been his _hands_ that would have been fine because then he could –

_That's_ what they'd wanted to do earlier.

Tao charged his tentacles just as he felt the agent wrap her hand around his throat and squeeze – she screamed a second later and Tao choked when her hand spasmed, gripping his neck. He jerked back as much as he could, and was rewarded with freeing himself.

He coughed, feeling where her nails had scratched his skin and heard the agent drop down next to him. Tao peered at her, his breath ragged, his neck throbbing - her eyes were closed and that was enough for him.

Tao just tried to breathe in and out as gently as he could, trying to not make his aching…_everything_ worse but his hands flew to his neck, as much help that would do when his lungs seized up.

He struggled to drag air into his lungs but every breath felt less and less and the world brightened, searing Tao's eyeballs.

"_Tao_!"

Tao's vision was suddenly filled with purple, with a mix of silver. He smiled, glad they were still alive, before everything whited out.

xOx

"_-ao? If – can you – back?_"

What…?

"_Transform your legs – you can-_"

Oh. "'Kay, Boss…"

xOx

Tao gained consciousness by degrees, hearing the regular beep of the heart monitor, the sound of pen on paper.

There was the familiar ache everywhere after being in a fight, but Tao smiled tiredly at the feel of _toes_. That was nice.

The writing stopped and Tao struggled to get his eyes open as he heard someone approach, muted footsteps on the carpet.

"How are you feeling?" Boss murmured, setting the clipboard down on the bed.

"Sore? Haha," he wheezed. It felt good, being able to breathe without difficulty. …Relatively, anyway.

Boss sent him a small smile. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to do a few things before you rest again."

"Heh, sure, Boss," Tao said. He was about to heave himself upright, but Boss stopped him with a shake of his head.

"There's no need for that – it won't take long."

"All right," Tao said, settling down again.

"Can you change your legs to the gorgon limbs?"

Tao blinked at him and then snickered. When Boss raised an expectant eyebrow, Tao just waved a hand; knowing the Boss, that was the correct term, but Tao still preferred using 'tentacles' to describe them.

He let out a long breath, concentrating on thinking about his tentacles, but nothing happened. It was like when he couldn't change the tentacles back to his regular legs, but this was far less panic-inducing than that. More relief-inducing, really. Just in case it was a similar case to that, Tao did the same thing as he did before, recalling every single detail he could, painting the image of it in his mind. It was harder to do, and Tao could only really think of impressions rather than what the tentacles looked like, but the result was just the same.

"No, I can't," he said, shaking his head.

"Good," Boss said, nodding. "Now, are you still experiencing that headache?"

"I – huh." Tao quirked a grin at him. "No. Hadn't noticed I wasn't-" A yawn blindsided him, and Tao lifted a hand to cover his mouth, suddenly feeling droopy.

"Just one more thing," the Boss said, holding his hand out, and Tao reached for it. When their palms touched, Tao waited a second, still almost expecting a reaction, but there wasn't any.

"Nothing." Tao paused to yawn widely again. "Sooo, I have a clean bill of health?"

Boss chuckled. "Yes. M-21 and Takeo were able to bring more than enough samples of the original poison, so I was able to find out how to reverse the process."

Tao wanted to whistle, but he chuckled instead. "I know you're a genius, Boss, but I didn't think you'd be able to work that quickly!" Not that he _wanted_ the Boss to work slower, obviously, but it still surprising just how much Boss could achieve in so little time.

Boss looked at him wryly over the rim of his glasses. "It's Monday afternoon."

"…Ah." He'd been unconscious for two days, then.

"I had to risk using my initial solution to stabilise you," Boss said, sighing. "As I far as I can tell at the moment, there isn't any permanent effect from your metamorphosis or from my solution."

"But you'll still be monitoring me, just in case," Tao finished for him, just before he yawned again. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. He would much prefer to be poked and prodded for the next little while than regrow the tentacles. Or die.

Boss gave him a warm smile. "Of course. Now go to sleep."

"Yes, Boss," Tao said, settling further into the bed.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

xOx

Tao could hear a lot more people the next time he woke up. And he could smell ramen.

"Morning," he said before he'd even opened his eyes. He stretched, luxuriating in his body responding to him easily. And only having two legs. Tao knew he was going to be enjoying that for a while.

"Evening," Regis corrected after the room hushed for a second.

"Is it still Monday?" Tao asked, finally opening his eyes and sliding himself up the bed to lean on the headboard. On the bedside table was a still steaming bowl of ramen. With squid.

"Yes," Takeo said.

"Heh, all right," Tao said as M-21 handed him the bowl.

"You're feeling better?" M-21 asked and Tao nodded as he sucked up a noodle.

"Mm!" Tao said once he'd swallowed it, remembering a few things he hadn't asked the Boss. "Two things I wanna know," he said, holding up  
two fingers.

He waited for the others to nod before he continued. He put down his middle finger. "What happened to the skirts?"

Miss Seira smiled at him while Takeo and M-21 breathed an exasperated sigh.

"Takeo and M-21 told me you'd bought most of them for me," she said.

"Yeah," Tao said, nodding, tilting his head back as he thought. "I guess all of them are for you now, since I don't need them anymore."

"Thank you," she said, dipping her head, and Tao smiled back at her.

"And the second thing?" Regis asked.

Tao grinned, looking at M-21. "What happened to your shirt?"

The grimace that flashed across M-21's face told him all he needed to know and Tao shook his head sadly as he leaned over and patted his shoulder. "You'll be able to do it someday."

M-21 swatted his hand away, giving him a dry look. "Finish your dinner."

Tao snickered before he started digging in again.

"Sooo," he drew out after a minute, and he waved his chopsticks to prove he was still eating, "after Boss lets me out, wanna help me set up cameras around the city?"

There was a brief pause, and then everyone nodded.

Grinning, Tao got back to finishing his ramen.

* * *

Haaa, when I started writing this in January, I half-stole the 'projectile from the wrist' from their other webcomic, Ability. And then I found out later the Another could actually poison people too. Orz;;;; And then Kalvin came into Noblesse… orz;;;;;; AND THEN THERE WAS THE THICKNESS OF THE ROOFTOPS ANDALJOAIEHOE. Basically, canon has been kicking my butt for two months straight, ahahaha… Either that or I've been pretty prophetic, but my predictions only came to light afterwards. XDDD;;; Apart from the rooftops. I am never getting over that.


End file.
